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LITMKIES REPUDIATED. 



H xV M f L T N • b C N D IT (J T 



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VINDICATED, 



JAMES A . H A M I E T O N 



NEW y R K . 
UIIARLES SCRIBNER & CO., 054 BROADWAY. 



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1870. 



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MARTIN VAN BTJREN'S ,,. 

CALUMNIES REPUDIATED, 



HAMILTON'S CONDUCT JjJ^ 

^1 1 



AS SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY 



VINDICATED. 



JAMES A. HAMILTON 




NEW YORK: 
CHARLES SCRIBNER & CO., 654 BROADWAY. 

1870. 






THE TEOTV & SMITH 

BOOK MANtlFAOTURING COMPAKY 

205, 207, 209, 211 & 218 E. 12th St. 



MARTIN YAN BUREN'S CALUMNIES REPUDIATED. 



ha.]m:ilton's conduct 

AS SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY, VINDICATED. 



INQUIRY 

Into the Origin and Course of Political Parties in the United 
States, hy the late ex-President Martin Van Burcn. 186Y. 

We do not intend to review this work, but to refer to sueli 
parts of it as charge Alexander Hamilton with having (p. 203) 
" heen faithless to one of the most sacred trusts that can he^^laced 
in nian.''^ P. 214: ^^ Hamilton did more than any one — / had 
almost said, than all his contemporaries — to counteract the will 
of the people, and to sid)vert, hy undermining, the Constitution 
of their choice^ P. 215: ^^ Hamilton'' s course was an outrage 
upon liberty and a crime against free government^'' It is assert- 
ed (p. 234) " of the great crisis in our national affairs, the 
fourth crisis of our Government was Hamilton's attempt to 
malce of the Government which had been established under it " 
(the Constitution) " a delusion, and the Constitution a sham, to 
pave the way for its overthroio.''^ (The italics are ours.) 

It is remarkable that a gentleman, who, as Senator, Yice- 
President, and President of the United States, had become 
familiar with the legislation of the nation, the messages of its 
Presidents, and the published letters of Mr. Jefferson, should 
have made such statements, when that legislation, those docu- 
ments and letters, establish the fact that some, if not all, the 
measures referred to were sanctioned as well by Congress again 
and again, as by Presidents Washington, Jefferson, Madison, 



4 HAMILTON VINDICATED. 

Monroe, and others, as will appear by the following exauiiria- 
tion. 

It is nudeniahle that Hamilton, as Secretary of the Treasury, 
urged upon Congress the adoption, 1st, of a Bank of the United 
States ; 2d, the assumption of the debts of the States incurred 
in the prosecution of the War of Independence ; 3d, a Funding 
system ; and, 4th, the protection of Domestic Manufactures ; 
that laws were passed by the first Congress under the Constitu- 
tion, to carry into effect these measures, and approved by Presi- 
dent Washington. See vol. ii., Laws of U. S., Protection^ pp. 2, 
176 ; Assumption, pp. 123, 127, 174; Fimding System, pp. 123, 
186 ; Banh, pp. 194, 200. 

Van Buren (p. 171) says : " I have already spoken of the 
extent to which the public mind was excited by Hamilton's 
measures. Large portions of the people regarded the most 
prominent among them as violations of the Constitution." He 
does not refer to any evidence on which these assertions are 
founded. We now produce conclusive proof that they are un- 
true. 

Mr. Jefferson (Secretary of State when these measures were 
adopted), in a letter to William Carmichael, dated Philadelphia, 
May 17th, 1791, says : " The term of the first Congress expired 
on the 3d instant. They separated on that day, much important 
business being necessarily postponed. New elections have taken 
place for the most part, and very few changes made. This is 
one of many proofs that the proceedings of the new Government 
have given general satisfaction." 

Mr. Jefferson to Fulwar Skepwith, Philadelphia, May 13th, 
1791 : " In general, our affairs are proceeding in a trahi of un- 
paralleled prosperity. This arises from the real improvements 
in our Government ; from the unbounded confidence i-eposed in 
it by the people ; their zeal to support it, and their conviction 
that a solid union is the best rock of their safety ; " * * * 
" from the favorable seasons, and from the growth of industry, 
economy, and domestic manufactures ; so that I believe I may 
say with truth, that there is not a nation under the sun enjoying 
more ];resent prosperity, nor with more in prospect." 

The same to Colonel Humphries, July 13tli, 1791 : " Our 
Bank was filled with subscriptions the moment it was opened. 
Eight millions of dollars was the whole permitted to be sub- 



HAMILTON VINDICATED. 5 

scribed, of whicli two millions were deposited in cash, the resi- 
due in public paper. Every other symptom is equally favorable 
to our credit." 

Jefferson, Secretary of State, April 6th, 1Y90 : "The 
Secretary of the Treasury having, by order of Congress, re- 
ported plans for funding both our foreign and domestic debts, 
tliey thought it necessary, by a recommitment, to subject that 
part of it which concerned the domestic debt to maturer discus- 
sion ; but the clause for making such adequate provision for ful- 
filling our engagements in respect to our foreign debt was not 
recommitted, because not susceptible of any abridgment or modi- 
fication ; on the contrary, it was passed without a dissenting 
voice, and only waits till the residue of that system of which it 
makes a part can be digested and put into the form of a law. I 
send you a copy of the resolution." 

Thus we are informed by the highest authority (Mr. Jefier- 
son) that the Funding System was adopted without a dissenting 
voice. 

Jefferson to Short, vol. iii., pp. 59, GO, July 26th, 1Y90: 
" Congress has passed an Act for establishing the seat of Gov- 
ernment at Georgetown from the year 1800." (It was passed 
July 16th, 1790.) * * * u ^hey have still before them the 
bill for funding the public debts, that has hitherto been delayed 
by a question whether the debts contracted by the particular 
States for general purposes should at once be assumed by the 
General Government. A development of circumstances and 
more mature consideration seem to have produced some changes 
of opinion on the subject. When it was first proposed, a major- 
ity was against it. Tliere is reason to believe, by the complexion 
of some latter votes, that the majority will now be for assuming 
these debts at a fixed amount — twenty-one millions of dollars 
proposed. As soon as this point is settled, the Funding Bill will 
pass." The Assumption Bill was passed August 4th, 1790. 
The Act establishing the Funding System appointing commis- 
sioners was passed August 12th, 1790. Particular reference is 
made to the dates of the approval of the two last Acts in connec- 
tion with another part of Mr. Yan Buren's treatise. 

These letters clearly contradict the statement made by Yan 
Buren, p. 171 : " I have already spoken to some extent to which 
the public mind was excited by Hamilton's measures. Large 



6 HAMILTON VINDICATED. 

portions of the people regarded the most prominent among them 
as violations of the Constitution." If it be true that tlie public 
mind was so excited, it must have been known to Mr. Jefi'erson ; 
and tliat excitement would have produced a change of tlie mem- 
bers of the second Congress. AVhereas Mr. Jeflferson, in his let- 
ter to Carmichael, March 7th, 1791, before referred to, declares : 
" New elections have taken place for the most part, and very few 
changes made. This is one of the many proofs that the proceed- 
ings of the new Government have given general satisfaction." 
It is possible, but highly improbable, that Yan Buren should not 
have read these and the other letters to which we have referred. 
Mr. Jefferson, in these letters, not only approves what had been 
done, but avers that the people, by their elections, did the same. 

We now proceed with the examination of the charges against 
Hamilton. First, " The Protective SystemP Yan Buren, p. 
159, referring to Hamilton's Keport on Manufactures, says : " Its 
bold assumptions of power, and the jubilant sph-it in which they 
were expressed, afltbrded the clearest indications as well to his 
opponents and to the country that he regarded his victory over 
the Constitution as comjpleteP (The italics are ours.) The 
report is dated on the 9tli, and was communicated to the House 
of Representatives on the 14th January, 1790 — before Mr. Jeffer- 
son's letters above quoted were written. 

In tliis connection it is important to refer to the second Act 
passed hy Congress^ and approved by Washington, on the 20th 
July, 1789, for laying duties on goods, wares, and merchandise 
imported into the United States. The recital to this Act is as 
follows : " Whereas it is necessary for the support of Govern- 
ment, for the discharge of the debts of the United States, and 
the encouragement and irrotection of manufactures^ that duties be 
levied on goods, wares, and merchandise imported," &c. The 
discussion of this Act, wdiich was introduced by Mr. Madison, 
began in the House of Representatives on the 8th April, and 
ended May 16th, 1789 — ayes 41, nays 8. The question of the 
constitutional power was only once referred to, and by Mr. Mad- 
ison, who said : " When these States retained the power of mak- 
ing regulations of trade, they had the power to protect and cher- 
ish such institutions. By adopting the present Constitution, 
they have thrown the exercise of this power into other hands. 
They must have done this with an expectation that these inter 
ests would not have been neglected." 



HAMILTON VmDICATED. 7 

Mr. Yan Biiren refers to Mr. Madison's efforts to pass this 
Act ; he, liowever, does not quote or refer to the preamble, or to 
this part of the discussion. This omission as to the preamble 
could not have been the result of ignorance. What was it, 
then ? The discussion he may not have read. 

The Act establishing the Treasury DejDartment was approved 
on the lOtli September, 1789 ; and Hamilton was not, when this 
protective Act was passed, a member of the Government. 

On the 10th August, 1790, another Act was passed. The 
preamble refers to the Act of 20th July, 1789, and states that 
" divers duties were laid on goods, wares, and merchandise so 
imported, for the discharge of the debts of the United States, 
and the encouragement and protection of manufactures.''^ The 
duties were increased by this Act. Washington, in his first 
annual Message, January 8, 1790, says : " The safety and inter- 
est of the people require that they should promote such manu- 
factures as tend to render them independent of others for essen- 
tials, particularly for military supplies." And the House of 
Representatives passed a resolution in these words : " That it be 
referred to the Secretary of the Treasury, to propose and report 
to this House a proper plan or plans, conformably to the recom- 
mendation of the President in his speech to both Houses of Con- 
gress, for the encouragement and promotion of such manufac- 
tures as will tend to render the United States independent of 
other nations for essential, particularly for military, supplies." 

If Hamilton had any doubts as to the true interpretation of 
the Constitution as to protective duties — which he certainly had 
not — this action of Congress and the President would have sanc- 
tioned his course on that subject. His Eeport on Manufactures 
was communicated to the House of Representatives December 
5th, 1791, nearly a year and a half after these two ^protective 
Acts were passed by Congress and approved by the President, 
with the open or silent approbation of his Cabinet ; Jeflferson, 
Secretary of State. Washington, in his Message, December 7th, 
1796, refers to the exercise of this power by Congress, in these 
words : " Congress have rej)eatedly, and not without success, 
directed their attention to the encouragement of manufactures. 
The object is of too much consequence not to insure a continu- 
ance of their efibrts in every way which shall appear eligible." 
The power under the Constitution to sustain such a system was 



8 HAMILTON VINDICATED. 

not questioned in tlie legislative or executive departments, nor 
by Mr. Jefferson in his letters to liis friends. On the contrary, 
in tlie letters quoted above, be not only approves wbat bad been 
done, but avers tbat the people, by their elections, had done the 
same. 

Jefferson, in bis eighth annual Message, November 8tli, 1808, 
says : " The extent of this conversion is daily increasing, and 
little doubt remains tbat the establishments formed, and forming 
(internal manufactures), will, under the auspices of cheaper ma- 
terials, &c., and of protective duties and prohibition, become 
permanent." 

Mr. Madison, in his inaugural address, 4th March, 1809, re- 
ferring to the purposes and the principles which he brought with 
him into this arduous service as President, enumerates what 
ought to be the principles and measures of our Government ; 
and, among others, " to promote, by authorized means, improve- 
ments friendly to agriculture, to manvfactures, and to external 
as well as to internal commerce." Here we have the authority 
of this distinguished man that the United States Government, 
under the Constitution, bad the power to take measures to im- 
prove our agriculture, our m.anvfactures, and, by roads and 
canals, to promote improvements in our internal commerce. 

Madison, in his Message, May 23d, 1809, advises, in the 
revision of our commercial laws, " to make such further altera- 
tions in the laws " (those of 1Y90 included) " as will more espe- 
cially protect and foster the several branches of manufactures 
which have been recently instituted and extended by the laud- 
able exertions of our citizens." Madison's second annual Mes- 
sage, December 5th, 1810, refers to the advantageous results of 
protection. His third annual Message, November 5tb, 1811 : 
" The just and sound policy of securing to our manufacturers the 
success they have attained." Madison, by a special Message, 
December 23d, 1811, suggests to Congress " the propriety and 
advantages of a general system of internal communication by 
canals." Madison, special Message, March 31st, 1814: "I 
recommend, also, as a more effectual safeguard and encourage- 
ment to our growing manufactures, that the additional duties on 
imports be prolonged." Madison, seventh annual Message, De- 
cember 5th, 1815 : " In adjusting the duties on imports to the 
object of revenue, the influence of tlie tariff on manufactures 



HAMILTON VINDICATED. 9 

^ill necessarily present itself for consideration." He also calls 
the attention of Congress to tlie great impoitance of establishing 
throughout our country the roads and canals which can best be 
executed under national authority. This is an extension of 
power far beyond any one Hamilton proposed. Madison's eighth 
annual Message, December 3d, 1816 : " Protect our manufactur- 
ing establishments." 

Monroe's inaugural, March 15th, 1817: " Onr manufacturers 
find a generous encouragement by the policy which patronizes 
domestic industry." " Our manufacturers will likewise require 
the systematic and fostering care of til e Government." * * * 
"It is important, too, that the capital which nourishes our manu- 
factures should be domestic." " Ecpally important is it to pro- 
vide a home market for our raw materials ; as, by extending the 
competition, it will enhance the price and protect the cultivator 
against the casualties incident to foreign markets." Monroe's 
first annual Message, December 2d, 1817: "Our manufactures 
will require the continued attention of Congress." * -^ * 
" By their promotion, which depends on due encouragement, is 
connected the high iuterest of the nation." 

Monroe's second annual Message, November 17th, 1818 : 
" The Act of April 30th, amending our Collection laws, has, it is 
presumed, secured to domestic manufactures all the relief that 
can be derived from the duties which hav^e been imposed upon 
foreign merchandise for their protection," Monroe's third an- 
nual Message, December 7th, 1819 : " It is deemed of great 
importance to give encouragement to our domestic manufac- 
tures." Monroe's fifth annual Message, December 3d, 1821 : 
" It may fairly be presumed that, under the protection given to 
domestic manufactures, we shall become, at no distant period, a 
manufacturing country on an extensive scale." " By the in- 
crease of domestic manufactures will the demand for the rude 
material at home be increased, and thus the dependence of the 
several parts of our Union on each other, and the strength of 
union itself, be proportionately augmented." Monroe's sixth 
annual Message, December 3d, 1822 : " It appears that our 
manufactures, though depressed immediately after the peace, 
have considerably increased under the encouragement given 
them by the tariff of 1816, and by subsequent laws." 

John Q. Adams, fourth annual Message, December 2d, 1828, 



10 HAMILTON VINDICATED. 

referring to the tariff of the previous session : " Bat if any of 
the duties imposed by that Act only relieve the manufacturers 
oy aggregating the burthens of the planter, let a careful revisal 
of its provisions be directed to retain those which impart protec- 
tion to native industry." '-'■ Protection'' is the great princijple 
sanctioned hy that Act, u^on which the Constitution itself was 
formed : / hope and trust the authorities of the Union will 
adhere.'' " The italics are ours. 

It is difficult to believe that Yan Buren had not read these 
messao-es ; and it is painful to believe that a man who had been 
a President of the United States couldbe guilty of such per- 
versions. 

Jackson's inaugural, March 4th, 1829, with regard to a proper 
selection of subjects of impost, with a view to revenue, says: 
" It seems to me that the spirit of equity " * ^ * " in 
which the Constitution was formed, requires that the great inter- 
ests of ao-riculture, commerce, and mcmufactures should be 
equally favored." Jackson's first annual Message, December 
8th 1829 : " The general rule in graduating the duties upon 
articles of foreign growth or manufacture, is that which will 
place ourvown in fair competition with those of other countries." 
Ao-ain : " It is principally as manufactures and commerce tend 
to increase the value of agricultural productions, that they de- 
serve the fostering care of Government ; " — thus asserting the 
constitutional power to foster manufactures by protection, and 
thus admitting that it had been required, and was constitutional. 
Jackson's second Message, December 7th, 1830 : " The power to 
impose duties on imports originally belonged to the several 
States. The right to adjust these duties, with a view to the 
encourao-ement of domestic branches of industry, is so complete- 
ly identical with that power, that it is difficult to suppose the 
existence of the one without the other. The States have dele- 
o-ated their whole power over imposts to the General Govern- 
ment, without limitation. This authority having thus entirely 
passed from the States, the right to exercise it for the purpose 
of protection does not exist in them ; and, consequently, if it be 
not possessed by the General Government, it must be extinct. 
This surely cannot be the case ; the indispensable power thus 
surrendered by the States must be within the scope of the au- 
thority on the subject expressly delegated to Congress. In this 



HAMILTON VINDICATED. 11 

conclusion I am confirmed as well by the opinions of the Presi- 
dents Washington, Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe, who have 
each repeatedly recommended the exercise of this right under 
the Constitution, as by the nniform practice of Congress, the 
continued acquiescence of the States, and the general under- 
standing of the people. While the chief object of duties should 
be revenue, they may be go adjusted as to encourage manufac- 
tures.^'' (The writer of this notice of Yan Buren's misrepresen- 
tations was invited to Jackson's house, to assist in the prepara- 
tion of this Message. He speaks with entire assurance when he 
asserts that Mr. Yan Buren, being Secretary of State when this 
Message was prepared, gave it his entire a/p2?roval.) 

John Quincy Adams' fourth annual Message, December 2d 
1828. Referring to the Tariff of 1828, Protection, he says: 
" To the great principles sanctioned by that Act — one of those 
upon which the Constitution itself was formed — I hope and 
trust the authorities of the Union will adhere." 

In connection with this recital of Jackson's views as to the 
protective system, it is not inappropriate to present the follow- 
ing, from the inaugural address (March 4, 1837) of Martin Van 
Buren, author of " The Inquiry " : " United, as I have been, in 
his " (Jackson's) " counsels," * * * " agreeing with him in 
sentiments which his countrymen have warmly supported, I mav 
hope that somewhat of the same cheering approbation will be 
found to attend upon my path." Again, Yan Buren says, in 
that address : " We have learned by experience a faithful les- 
son, that an implicit and undeviating adherence to the principles 
on which we set out can carry us prosperously onward through 
all the conflicts of circumstances and the vicissitudes inseparable 
from the lapse of years." 

Surely some of the most marked principles on which w^e set 
out were the enactments of Congress approved by Washington ; 
that the Constitution sanctioned the protection of manufacture 
by imposts ; the funding system ; assumption of State debts ; 
and the United States Bank. 

Second. " The Funding System, and the Assumption of the 
debts of the States^ Gordon's Digest, p. 804 : " The Articles of 
Confederation adopted the public debt contracted before their 
formation, and the 6th article of the present Constitution im- 
posed on the United States all debts contracted before its adop- 



12 HAMILTON VINDICATED. 

tion. To provide for the payment of this debt, and thus to sus- 
tain the credit of the United States at home and abroad, was 
one of the most powerful inducements to the existing Union of 
the States." The funding system was established by the Act of 
4th August, 1T90 (vol. ii., p. 123), first session of the first Con- 
gress ; and, by the same Act, the debts of the States were as- 
sumed to the amount of twenty-one millions, as suggested by 
Mr. Jefferson, The recital to this Act is : " Whereas justice and 
the support of public credit require that provision should be 
made for fulfilling the engagements of the United States in 
respect to their foreign debt, and for funding their domestic debt 
upon equitable and satisfactory terms." Section 1 provides, that 
out of the moneys which shall arise from duties on goods, M'ares, 
and merchandise imported into the United States, the yearly 
sum of six hundred thousand dollars, or so much as may be 
appropriated from time to time for the support of Government 
and the common defence, the residue of said moneys shall be, 
and is hereby, appropriated to the payment of interest on loans 
heretofore made by the United States in foreign countries, and 
also to the payment of interest on such further loans as may be 
obtained for, &q., &c., * * * to co7itinue so ajpjprojpriated 
until said loans^ as well as those already made^ shall he fully 
satisfied. By section 2, the President is authorized to borrow 
twelve millions, and to cause to be made such other contracts 
respecting said debt as shall be found to the interest of the Uni- 
ted States, provided that no contract shall be entered into which 
shall preclude the United States from reimbursing any sura or 
sums borrowed within fifteen years after the same shall have 
been lent or advanced. 

By section 3, it is enacted that a loan to the full amount of 
the domestic debt be, and the same is hereby, proposed for neces- 
sary subscriptions to the said loan (to be opened at the Treasury, 
&c.) ; and that the sum which shall be subscribed thereto be 
payable in certificates issued for said debt according to their spe- 
cie value. Other sections provide the means of carrying out 
said loan. Section 4 provides that, for the whole or any part of 
any sum subscribed to said loan by any person, which shall be 
paid in the principal of the said domestic debt, the subscriber 
shall be entitled to a certificate purporting that the United States 
owe to the holder thereof, or his assigns, a sum to be expressed 



HAMILTON VINDICATED. 13 

therein. The 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, and 12th sec- 
tions prescribe details to effect the arrangeinei)ts and the interest 
on certiticates paid, and when the United States may pay the 
same. Then follows this recital : " And whereas a provision for 
the debts of the respective States, by the United States, would 
be greatly conducive to an orderly, economical, and effectual 
arrangement of the public finances," it was further enacted, sec- 
tion 13, " that a loan be proposed to the amount of twenty-one 
millions and five hundred thousand dollars, and that subscrip- 
tions to said loan be received at the same time and places, and 
by the same persons, as in respect to the previous loans ; and 
that the sum which shall be subscribed to the said loan shall be 
paid in the principal and interest of certificates and notes which, 
prior to the 1st January last, were issued by the respective States 
as evidences of debts by them respectively." The Act then 
goes on to declare, that no greater sum shall be received in the 
certificates of any State than as follows: ]S"ew Hampshire, 
$300,000 ; Massachusetts, $4,000,000 ; Ehode Island, $200,000 ; 
Connecticut, $1,600,000 ; New York, $1,200,000 ; New Jersey, 
$800,000; Pennsylvania, $2,200,000 ; 'Delaware, $200,000; 
Maryland, $800,000; Virginia, $3,500,000; :N"orth Carolina, 
$2,400,000; South Carolina, $4,000,000; Georgia, $300,000. 
Provided that no such certificates shall be received which 
* * * shall appear to have been issued for any other purpose 
than compensations and expenditures for services or supplies for 
the prosecution of the late war (the War of Independence). The 
14tli, 15th, 16th, 17th, 18th, and 19th sections provide details. 
The 20th section provides " that the moneys arising fi-om the 
revenue laws, which have been, or during the present session of 
Congress may be, passed, or so much thereof as may be neces- 
sary, shall he, and are Jiereby, pledged and appropriated for the 
payment of the interest on the stock which shall he created ly the 
loans aforesaid, to continue so pledged and appropriated ttrdil the 
Unal redemption of said stock, any law to the contrary notwith- 
standing. And to the end that the said moneys may he inviola- 
Uy applied in conformity to this Act, and may never be diverted 
to any other purpose, an account shall he kept of the receipts, and 
description thereof, separate and distinct from any other duties J^ 
The 21st section pledges the faith of the United States to 
provide and appropriate such additional and permanent funds as 
may be requisite to supply any deficiency. 



14 HAMILTON VINDICATED. 

Tlie 23d section declares that tlie proceeds of the sales of 
the public lands shall be, and are hereby, appropriated toward 
sinking or discharging the debts (of the United States), and 
shall be appropriated solely to that use until the debts shall be 
fully satisfied. See the Act passed August 5th, 1Y90, vol. ii., 
pp. 1-4, to j^rovide more effectually for the settlement of the 
accounts between the United States and individual States. It is 
to be remarked, that all claims assumed by the United States are 
such as shall have accrued for the general or particular defence 
during the War of Independence. 

The Act passed August 12th, 1790, chap. 47, vol. ii., p. 186, 
is emphatically that which establishes the funding system most 
effectually, and to which is to be attributed the merit of having 
paid off the debts of the United States contracted to sustain the 
"War of Independence and the wars with Great Britain and 
Mexico. 

Section 1. That all such surplus of the product of the duties 
on goods, ifec, imported, as shall remain after satisfying the sev- 
eral purposes for which appropriation shall have been made by 
law to the end of the present session, shall be applied to the pur- 
chase of the debt of the United States at its market price, if not 
exceeding the par or true value thereof. Section 2. That the 
purchases to be made of the said debt shall bo made under the 
direction of the President of the Senate, the Chief Justice, the 
Secretary of State, the Secretary of the Treasury, and the Attor- 
ney-General for the time being, or any three of them, with the 
approbation of the President of the United States. They shall 
cause the said purchases to be made in such manner and under 
such regulations as shall appear to them best calculated to fulfil 
the intent of this Act, provided that the same be made openly, 
and with due regard to the equal benefit of the several States. 
These commissioners wei"e required to report, within the first 
fourteen days of each session, of purchases made under their 
direction, specifying the times thereof, the prices at which, and 
the parties from whom, the same shall be made. 

On the 8th May, 1792, another funding Act was passed. By 
the 9tli section of the Act passed March 3d, 1795, it was pro- 
vided that the moneys which shall accrue to the said sinking 
fund shall be, and are hereby, declared to he vested, in the said 
comrnissioners, in tnist, to he applied to the reimhursement and 



HAMILTON VINDICATED. 



15 



redemption of said debt. And the faith of the United States is 
hereby pledged^ that the money and fund shall inviolably remain 
and be ajypropriated and vested as aforesaid^ to be ajyplied to the 
said reimbursement and redemption in manner aforesaid, until 
the same shall be fully and completely effected. 

Haniilton resigned the office of Secretary of the Treasury on 
the 31st Januar}'', 1Y95. 

Washington's answer to his letter, dated February 2d, 1795, 
is in these words : 

'• Dear Sir : After so long an experience of your public ser- 
vices, I am naturally led, at this moment of your departure from 
office — which it has always been my wish to prevent— to review 
them. 

" In every relation which you have borne to me, I have 
found that my confidence in your talents, exertions, and integ- 
rity has been well placed. 

" I the more freely render this testimony ot my approbation, 
because I speak from opportunities of information which cannot 
deceive me, and which furnish satisfactory proof of your title to 
public regard. My most earnest wishes for your happiness will 
attend you in your retirement, and you may assure yourself of 
tlie sincere esteem, regard, and friendship of, 

" Dear sir, your affectionate G. Washington." 

Another assumption Act was passed on the 19th February, 
1795 ; on the 2Gth April, 1796, another funding Act was passed ; 
and on the 31st May, 1796, another Act recnforcing the funding 
system. 

By an Act passed 29th April, 1802, $7,300,000 were annu- 
ally appropriated to the sinking fund. By an Act passed 31st 
May, 1806, the sinking fund was reorganized. These Acts were 
approved by President Jefferson. In his first annual Message, 
he says, referring to Hamilton's system of finance : " A7nong the 
vayments, those made in discharge of the national debt will show 
that the public faith has been exactly maintainedP 

It cannot be necessary to go further into the examination of 
the action of the Government, with the assent of every Presi- 
dent, except J. Adams, Sr., from its commencement down to 
and including the presidency of Andrew Jackson, that the pro- 



16 hamtltojst vindicated. 

tection of domestic manufactures, the assumption hj the United 
States of the debts of the States, and the approval of the fund- 
ing system, were not only constitutional exercises of power, but 
most salutary measures. 

Before leaving this particular subject, we must refer to the 
course of Mr. Jefferson more particularly in regard to the fund- 
ing system. 

Mr. Gallatin, appointed Secretary of the Treasury by Presi- 
dent Jefferson, in his lirst report, approved the funding system 
established under Hamilton's administration of tlie Treasury, in 
these words : " That the actual revenues of the Union are suflB- 
cient to defray all the expenses, civil and military, of the Gov- 
ernment, to the extent authorized by existing laws, to meet all 
the engagements of the Government of the United States, and 
to discharge, in fifteen and a half (15^) years, the whole of our 
public debt." Mr. Jefferson, in relation to that repoi-t, addi'essed 
a letter to Mr. Gallatin, saying : " I have read and considered 
your report on the operation of the sinking fund, and entirely 
approve it as the best plan on which we can set out." See Jef- 
ferson's Writings, by Randolph, vol. iii., p. 488. 

By the Acts passed 14:th March, 1813, 8th February, 1813, 
2d August, 1813, 24th March, 1814, 3d March, 1815, loans were 
authorized, the payment of which were charged on the sinking 
fund. By the Act of 3d March, 1817, an annual appropriation 
of ten million dollars was vested in the commissioners of the 
sinking fund. All these Acts were approved by President 
Madison. 

The Acts passed May 15th, 1820, March 3d, 1821, 17th 
April, 1822, and 26th May, 1824, authorized principal and inter- 
est to be charged to the sinking fund. These Acts were approved 
by President Monroe. 

Madison, in his seventh annual Message, dated December 
5th, 1815, advises assumption of State debts, thus : " There will 
probably be some addition to the public debt upon the liquida- 
tion of vai-ious claims which are depending ; and a conciliatory 
disposition on the part of Congress may lead honorably and ad- 
vantageously to an equitable arrangement of the militia expenses 
incurred by the several States without the previous sanction or 
authority of the Government of the United States." This was 
the assumption of State debts ; and thus a clear and explicit 



HAMILTON VINDICATED. 17 

approval of Hamilton's system was given, not only as expedient, 
but as constitutional, 

Mr. Jefferson, in a letter to Mr. Madison, dated Paris, March 
IStli, 1789 (vol. ii., p. Ill), referring to the Constitution to be 
settled in France, says : " Besides settling for themselves a toler- 
ably free Constitution, they will fund their debt ; this will give 
them such a credit as will enable them to borrow any money 
they may want." Again, in a letter to Colonel Humphries, 
March 18, 1789, vol. ii., p. 419, he says, referring to France : 
" The consolidation and funding their debts will give Govern- 
ment a credit which will enable them to do what they ])lease." 

See p. 101, same vol., letter to La Fayette : " I wish you suc- 
cess in your meeting " (in 1787, in Paris, to form a Constitution). 
" Keeping the good model of your neighboring country " (Great 
Britain) " before your eyes, you may get on, step by stejD, toward 
a good Constitution. You see how we republicans are apt to 
preach when we get on politics." 

This proof of Jefferson's approval of a funding system is 
important, although it does not meet the constitutional question 
as an answer to much he wrote to "Washington, and others, 
against the system itself. 

Mr. Jefferson was President of the United States from the 
4th March, 1801, to that day in 1809. 

On the 29th April, 1802, Congress passed ail Act, by which 
seven millions were appropriated to the sinking fund, and direc- 
tions given to the commissioners for its application to the pay- 
ment of the debt. This Act was approved by President Jeffer- 
son. Surely, if it was unconstitutional, as he had before assert- 
ed, his duty required him to have returned the Act with his 
veto. 

Jefferson, in his first annual Message (see " Presidents' Mes- 
sages," p. 98), says : " Among the payments, those made in dis- 
charge of the principal and interest of the national debt will 
show that the public faith has been exactly maintained." 

In his second annual Message (p. 104), referring to the rules 
of action which ought to govern Congress, he says : " To foster 
our fisheries as nurseries of navigation and for the nurture ol 
men, and protect the manufactures adapted to our circumstances 
— to keep all things within the pale of our constitutional power, 
and cherish the Federal Union as the only rock of safety — these, 
2 



18 HAMILTON VINDICATED. 

fellow-citizens, are tbe landmarks by -wliicli Ave are to guide our- 
selves in all our proceedings. By continuing to make these the 
rules of our action, we shall endear to our countrymen the true 
principles of our Constitution." 

Surely, if the laws of Congress, passed during Washington's 
administration by Hamilton's advice, to establish a funding sys- 
tem, to assume the debts of the States for the protection of 
manufactures, and to establish a United States Bank, were such 
violations of the Constitution as to justify Van Buren's charges 
aerainst Hamilton, Mr. Jefferson could not liave written the 
words I have italicized. 

In Jefferson's third annual Message, pp. 107, 108, he says : 
" Should the accpiisition of Louisiana be constitutionally con- 
firmed and carried into effect, a sum of nearly thirteen millions 
of dollars will be added to our public debt, most of which is 
payable after iiftcen years ; before which time the present exist- 
ing debts will all be discharged by the established operation of 
the sinking fund." 

In 1806, Jefferson President, an Act was approved, by which 
a sura, of money was passed to the credit of the sinking ftcnd. 
During Madison's administration, 14th March, 1812, an Act was 
approved by him, authorizing a loan of eleven millions, the pay- 
ment of which was charged to the sinkirig fund. 

8th February, 1813, an Act, approved by Madison, authoriz- 
ing a loan for sixteen millions (one hundred dollars in stock was 
given for eighty-eight dollars in money), principal and interest 
charged to the sinking fund. 

2d August, 1813, an Act, approved by Madison, authorizing 
a loan of $7,500,000, principal and interest charged to the sink- 
ing find. 

24:th March, 1814, an Act, approved by Madison, authoriz- 
ing a loan for twenty-five millions, sold at eighty per cent., by 
which a deposit of $15,661,818 was created, charged to the 
sinking find. 

2d March, 1815, an Act, approved by Madison, frincipal 
and interest charged to the sinking fund. 

These several Acts, passed by Congresses of the Democratic 
party, and approved by the two great leaders of that party, were 
such a sanction of the constitutionality of the sinking fund sys- 
tem as should have satisfied Mr. Van Buren that Hamilton had 



HAMILTON VINDICATED. 19 

not, in recommending that system, violated the Constitution and 
" a sacred trust." 

Yan Buren frequently intimates that Hamilton's funding 
system was drawn from that of Great Britain, P. 140, he 
says : " The funding system^ as presented to Congress ly him, as 
loell as the hank, were not only on the English plan, hut, as far 
as that could consistently he effected, were copies of the originals.''^ 

The assertion contained in the words I have italicized is a 
palpable misrepresentation ; I believe I might say, a wilfnl one. 
Assuming that Mr. Van Buren could not be ignorant of the fact 
that the English funding s^^stem was presented to Parliament by 
Mr. Pitt, on the 29th of March, 1Y86 ; whereas Hamilton, on 
the 16th day of December, 11^^— four years hefore Pitt's fund- 
ing system was proposed or adopted — presented to the Congress, 
under the confederation of which he was a member from Kew 
York, the following resolution, which was adopted December 
16th, 1Y82 : 

" Whereas, it is essential to justice and the preservation of 
public credit, that, whenever a nation is obliged, by the exigen- 
cies of public affairs, to contract a debt, proper funds should be 
established, not only for paying the annual value or interest of 
the same, but for discharging the principal within a reasonable 
period, by which a nation may avoid the evils of an excessive 
accumulation of debt ; therefore 

" Resolved, That whenever the net proceeds of any funds 
recommended by Congress, and granted by the States, for fund- 
ing the debt already contracted, or for procuring further loans 
for the support of the war, shall exceed the sum requisite for 
paying the interest of the whole amount of the national debt 
which these States may owe at the termination of the present 
war, the surplus of such grants shall form a sinhing fund, and 
be inviolably appropriated to the payment of the principal oi 
the said debt, and shall on no account be diverted to any other 
purpose." See '* Hamilton's Works," vol. ii., p. 212. 

Mr. Yan Buren (p. 408) says : " The difference between the 
provisions of the sinking fund first and now adopted loas great 
indeed^ The only difference we find in the laws, after a care- 
ful analysis, is that, in the latter period of the Government, 
larger sums were appropriated to the use of the commissioners 
of the sinking fund, to be applied to the payment of the debts. 



20 HAMILTON VINDICATED. 

Ill 1790, the means of the Government were so limited that the 
appropriation of six per cent, for interest, and two per cent, to 
pay or purchase, was all that could be so appropriated. lie pro- 
ceeds : " The grant of the funds to the first, to say nothing of 
their insufficiency, lacked the essential quality of being irrevoca- 
ble, but was " (sic) " left subject to the action of Congress." 

We refer to Hamilton's report to Congress, communicated to 
the House of Eepresentatives, January 14th, 1790 (see " Hamil- 
ton's Works," vol. iii., pp. 1-54). This most excellent treatise 
on public credit is worthy of republication at this period of our 
country's history. We can only quote such parts of this, and 
subsequent reports, as are necessary to meet the above misrepre- 
sentations. 

Eeport of January 9th, 1790, vol. iii., of " Hamilton's 
Works," p. 32 : " On this head, the Secretary would propose 
that the duties on distilled spirits should be applied, in the first 
instance, to the payment of the interest on the foreign debt, 
which amounted to $11,710,378.62 ; that, reserving out of the 
residue of these duties an annual sum of $600,000, for the cur- 
rent service of the United States, the surplirs, together with the 
product of other duties, to be applied to the interest on the new 
loan by an appropriation co-extensive with the extinction of the 
debt." P. 41 : " Persuaded, as the Secretary is, that the proper 
funding of the present debt will render it a national blessing, 
yet he is so far from acceding to the position in the latitude in 
which it is sometimes laid down, that public debts are public 
blessings, that he ardently wishes to see it incorporated as a fun- 
damental maxim in the system of public debt of the United 
States, that the creation of debt should always be accompanied 
with the means of extinguishment. Tliis he regards as the true 
security for rendering public credit immortal, and that it is diffi- 
cult to conceive a situation in which there may not be an adher- 
ence to this maxim." He expresses his " unfeigned solicitude 
that this may be attempted by the United States, and that they 
may commence their measures for the establishment of credit 
with the observance of it ; " and that, " upon the due observ- 
ance of the maxims that uphold public credit at the present crit- 
ical juncture^ materially depends the individual and aggregate 
prosperity of the citizens of the United States ; their relief from 
the embarrassment they now experience ; their character as a 



HAMILTON VINDICATED. 21 

people ; tlie cause of good government." * * * "If the 
maintenance of pnblic credit, tlien, be so truly important, the 
next inquiry that suggests itself is, By what means is it to he 
effected ? The ready answer is, By good faith ; by a punctual 
performance of contracts." lie then points out the individual 
and public advantages which must necessarily result, by a proper 
and adequate provision, at the present period (1790), for the sup- 
port of the public credit. We now propose, as concisely as pos- 
sible, to state what that system was, and by what laws it was 
secured. We quote : 

First. " To constitute a fund sufficient, in every supposable 
event, for extinguishing the whole of the present debt of the 
United States in a period not exceeding thirty (30) years." 

Second. " To fix its destination unchangeably^ hy not only 
apjprojpriating it jpermanently under the direction of commission- 
ers, and vesting it in them as property in trust, hut hy snaking 
its faithful application a part of the contract with the cred- 
itorsP 

As to the first point : " Let it be enacted that the present 
tonnage and import duties, or as large an amount thereof as will 
be sufficient to pay the interest and one per cent, of the princi- 
pal of the public debt existing at the time of its enactment, or 
as may be incurred by the rebellion, shall be continued till the 
debts and purposes for M'hich they are appropriated shall be sat- 
isfied ; reserving, however, a right to Congress to substitute other 
duties or taxes of equal value." See Act of Congress, August 
10th, 1790. 

As to the second point : " The intent is to secure, by all the 
sanctions of which the subject is susceptible, an inviolable appli- 
cation of the fund according to its destination. No expedients 
more powerful can be devised for this purpose, than to clothe it 
with the character of private property, and to engage absolutely 
the faith of the Government, by maldng the application of it to 
the object apaH of the contract with the creditors^ 

" That the fund so appropriated shall be vested in commis- 
sioners, to consist of the Yice-President of the United States, or 
President of the Senate, the Speaker of the House of Represen- 
tatives, the Chief Justice, Secretary of the Treasury, and the 
Attorney-General of the United States, for the time being, in 
trusty to be applied by them, or any three of them, to the dis- 



22 HAMILTON VINDICATED. 

charge of the existing debt, either hy purchase of stock in 
market, or by payment on account of principal, as shall ap- 
pear to them most advisable, in conformity to public engage- 
ments ; to continue so vested nntil the whole of the debt be 
discharged." This simple and comprehensive system was estab- 
lished with the sanction of Washington, and adopted by every 
successive Administration to 1848, (During this period, thirty 
Acts were passed recognizing the maxim, that " the creation of 
debt should always be accompanied with means of its extinguish- 
ment.") 

It is to be remarked, that the fund arising from the interest of 
the debt so purchased or redeemed was commonly called " the pro- 
gressive force of the sinking fund." It is an arithmetical irnth, 
that a fund equal to one per cent, of any amount of deht so set 
apart and applied to the purchase or payment of that debt^ with 
the interest on the part so redeemed, will extinguish the whole iii 
a period of thirty four years. 

By the 9th section of the Act jDassed 3d March, 1Y95, it was 
declared " that, as well the money which shall accrue to the sink- 
ing fund by this Act, and previous Acts, shall, under the direc- 
tion and management of the commissioners of the sinking fund, 
and their successors in office, be, and continue, appropriated to 
the said fund, until the whole of the debt of the United States" 
* * '■'' " shall be reimbursed and redeemed, and shall be, and 
are hereby, declared to be vested in the said commissioners, in 
trust, to be applied according to the provisions of the Act of the 
8th day of August, 1792, and of this Act, to the reimbursement 
and redemption of the said debt, until the same shall be fully 
reimbursed and redeemed." 

In Hamilton's report, January 23d, 1792, vol. iii., p. 296, he 
says : " It is therefore submitted that it be adopted as a princi- 
ple, that all interest which shall cease to be payable, by purchase 
or payment of the principal, shall be set apart and appropriated, 
in the most sure and inviolable manner, as a fund for sinking the 
public debt by purchase or payment ; and the said fund be 
placed under the direction of the officers " (also named), " to ba 
applied toward the purchase of the said debt, until the annual 
produce of said fund shall amount to two per cent, of the entire 
portion of the debt which bears a present interest of six per 
cent.,, and thenceforth to be applied toward the redemption of 
that portion of the debt, according to the right which has been 



HAMILTON VINDICATED. 23 

reserved to the Government. It will deserve the consideration 
of the Legislature, whether this fund ought not to be so vested 
as to acquire the nature and quality of a proprietary trust, inca- 
pable of being diverted without a violation of the principles and 
sanctions of property." He adds : " It is not doubted that the 
progressive development of the resources of the country, and a 
reduction of the rate of interest by the progress of the public 
credit, will speedily enable the Government to make important 
additions to it in various ways." 

In a report, dated March 16th, 1Y92 (vol. iii., p. 326) : " If a 
loan should be thought eligible, it is submitted, as most advis- 
able, to accompany it with a provision sufficient not only to pay 
the interest, but to discharge the principal within a short period." 
Again : " From the most careful view which he is able to take 
of all the circumstances at the present juncture, he is led to con- 
clude that the most eligible mode is to impose additional duties 
on imported articles." He adds (p. 333): "The foregoing duties 
to be permanently established, and to be appropriated, in the 
first place, to the payment of the interest of the public debt ; in 
the second, to such other grants and appropriations as have been 
heretofore made." 

By the Act passed August 10th, 1T90, it is declared " that 
the duties laid by this Act shall continue until the debts and 
purposes for which they are appropriated shall be satisfied ; re- 
serving, however, a right to Congress to substitute other duties 
or taxes of equal value." 

An Act was passed 3d March, 1Y91, which increased certain 
duties, and added, on others, higher rates of duties (p. 459). 
These duties are appropriated primarily in the same manner and 
to the same purposes as those laid on imported articles by the 
Act of 10th August, 1790, and are to continue for the same time. 
Also, see the Act of 2d May, 1792, establishing higher duties. 
Tlicse duties are conformable with the Act of June, 1792. See 
Act of 8th May, 1792 ; this provides new and increased duties, 
which are appropriated in the same manner and for the same 
purposes, and are to continue for the same period, as those for 
which they are substitutes (p. 463). See Act of June, 1794 : 
" Certain specific sums, amounting together to $1,292,137.38, 
are charged upon the proceeds of the revenues which are created 
by the five last-mentioned Acts; and there is a reservation made 



24 HAMILTON VINDICATED. 

out of tliem of a sum sufficient to pay the interest of wliatevei* 
moneys may be borrowed pursuant to the Act passed 20tli 
March, 1794, which sum is pledged for the payment of that 
interest." 

" AssuinjpUonP — The Act passed August 4, lYOO, authorizing 
" the assumption of debts incurred by the States for supph'es and 
services rendered during the War of Independence." By this Act, 
the United States, though having a right to redeem in a certain 
proportion, should not be obliged to do it. " And that the pro- 
ceeds of the public revenues, which before that time had been, and 
during the then session should be, pro^'ided, after reserving the 
sum of $000,000 for the expenses of the Government, the sums 
necessary for the payments of interest on the foreign loans made 
and to be made, and the sums necessary for the payment of the 
interest on the loan on the domestic debt, should be, and thereby 
were, pledged and appropriated, and to continue so appropriated 
until the final redemption of the capital stock." By these Acts, 
and the reports of the Secretary, it is proved that Yan Buren's 
statement (p. 408), that the grant of the funds to the first fund- 
ing system, to say nothing of their insufficiency^ is entirely gra- 
tuitous. (The grant of funds first made were, of course, limited 
by the slender means of the Government ; but it is clearly 
proved tbat, as the means were increased by taxation, advised by 
Hamilton, that the sinking fund was greatly increased.) Yan 
Buren adds, " that the funds applied to tlie paytnent of the debt 
lacked the essential quality of being irrevocable, but was " (sic) 
" left subject to the action of Congress.''^ (The italics are ours.) 

]Sro man of ordinary intelligence and integrity, w^ho had read 
the Acts referred to and quoted, could make such a statement. 
The Act of 1790 declares that the sums appropriated to the fund- 
ing system '■'■ should be, and thereby were, pledged and appropri- 
ated ', and to continue so appropriated until the final redemp- 
tion of the capital stocks (The italics are ours.) 

For the several Acts passed by Hamilton's advice during his 
administration of the Treasury, see Gordon's Digest, notes, pp. 
804-806. For these Acts for'^the year 1795, prior to 1812, after 
1812 to 1824, see pp. 306--308 ; and as to the sinking fund, pp. 
809-811. By the various Acts passed during these periods, 
whenever the sinking fund is referred to — which is repeatedly — 
there is no other system adopted or referred to than the first one 



HAMILTON VINDICATED. 25 

establisliecl imder Hamilton's advice ; and bj the Acts approved 
August 4th, 1790, see vol. ii.. Laws U. S,, p. 123, and the sup- 
plenientaiy Act passed May 8th, 1792, p. 306, wlien, Mr. Yan 
Buren says, " the difference between the provisions of the sink- 
ing fund first and now adopted was great," he intimates that 
there were two systems. After the most extended and careful 
examination of the laws, I find frequent reference to the first 
system, and to no other. 

These laws were passed not only during the administratioji 
of "Washington and Adams, but those of Jejfferson and Madison ; 
and thus did the provisions of the funding system, established in 
1790 and 1792, receive their approval as useful and constitu- 
tional. The only diflerence was in regard to the amount of rev- 
enue applied to the sinking fund during the first administration, 
and that which the increased revenues, from supplemental taxa- 
tion, produced. 

The foreign debt, principal and interest, to 

31st December, 1789, amounted to . $11,710,378.62 

The domestic debt, principal and interest, to 

31st December, 1790, to " . . . 40,414,085.94 



$54,124,464.56 



The State debts were assumed at $20,500,000. 

The interest to be provided was assumed to be (exclusive of 
the State debts) $2,239,163.09. The current expenses of the 
year were estimated at $600,000. Total, $2,839,163.09. 

The Secretary assumes that this sum may be obtained from 
the present duties on imports and tonnage, with certain additions, 
which may be made on wines, spirits, tea, and coflee. From 
this statement of the amount of interest to be paid and the 
means provided, it was not possible to appropriate a larger 
amount than tioo per centum to the sinking fund. 

" Banh of the United States."— Van Buren, p. 202 : "There 
was no warrant in the Constitution for the establishment of a 
National Bank." 

The Bank of ISTorth America originated in a resolution of 
Congress of the 26th May, 1781 (under the Articles of Confed- 
eration), founded upon a proposition of the Superintendent of 



26 H.oriLTOiSr vindicated. 

Finance, wliieli was afterward carried into effect by an ordinance 
of the 31st December, 1781, entitled, " An Ordinance to Incor- 
porate the Subscribers of the Bank of Kortli America." Ham- 
ilton's report on a Kational Bank was communicated to the 
House of Eepresentatives, 14th December, 1Y90. See Hamil- 
ton's Works, vol. iii., p. 106. 

On the 16th January, 1791, Washington addressed a note to 
Hamilton, stating that the constitutionality of the Bank Act 
" is objected to," and enclosed to him the reports on that point 
of the Attorney-General and the Secretary of State : " And I 
now require, in like manner, yours on the validity and propriety 
of the Act." 

The Secretary of the Treasury, on the 23d February, 1791, 
in a note, " presents his respects to the President, and sends him 
the opinions required, which occupied him the greatest part of 
last night." See the Argument, vol. iv. Hamilton's Works, pp. • 
101-138. He says, " his chief solicitude arises fi-om a firm per- 
suasion that principles of construction, like those espoused by 
the Secretary of State and Attorney-General, would be fatal to 
the just and indispensable authority of the United States." In 
entering upon the argument, it ought to be presumed that the 
objection of the Secretary of State and Attorney-General are 
founded on a general denial of the authority of the United 
States to erect corporations. The latter, indeed, expressly ad- 
mits, " that, if there be any thing in the bill which is not war- 
ranted by the Constitution, it is the clause of incorporation. 
'Now, it appears to the Secretary of the Treasury that this gen- 
eral principle is inherent in the very definition of Government, 
and essential to every step of the progress to be made by that 
of the United States ; namely, that every power vested in a 
government is, in its nature, sovereign, and includes, by force 
of the term, a right to employ all the means requisite and fairly 
applicable to the attainment of the end of such powers, and 
which are not precluded by restrictions and exceptions specified 
in the Constitution, or not immoral or not contrary to the essen- 
tial ends of the political society." 

" It is no valid objection to the doctrine to say, that it is 
calculated to extend the power of the General Government 
throughout the entire sphere of State legislation. The same 
thing has been said with regard to every exercise of power by 



HAMILTON VINDICATED. 27 

implication or constmction." * * * " The truth is, that 
difficulties on this point are inherent in the nature of the Fed- 
eral Constitution ; they result inevitably from a division of legis- 
lative power. The consequence of this division is, that there 
will be cases clearly within the power of the national Govern- 
ment, others clearly without its power, and a third class which 
will leave room for controversy and difference of opinion, and 
concerning which a reasonable latitude of judgment must be 
allow^ed." 

To erect a corporation is to substitute a legal or artificial to 
a natural person, and, when a number are concerned, to give 
them individuality. To that legal or artificial person, once cre- 
ated, the common law of every State of itself annexes all those 
incidents and attributes which are represented as a prostration 
of the main pillar of their jurisprudence. But if it were even 
to be admitted that the erection of a corporation is a direct alter- 
ation of the stated law^s in the enumeration of particulars, it 
would do nothing toward proving that the measure was uncon- 
stitutional. If the Government of the United States can do no 
act which amounts to an alteration of a State law, all its powers 
are nugatory ; for almost every new law is an alteration, in some 
way or other, of an old law, either common or statute. 

There are laws concerning bankruptcy in some States ; some 
have laws regulating the value of foreign coin. Congress are 
empowered to establish uniform laws concerning bankruptcy 
throughout the United States, and to regulate the value of for- 
eign coin. The exercise of either of these powers by Congress 
necessarily involves an alteration of the laws of those States. 

As to the rejection of a proposition by the Convention to 
empower Congress to make corporations, Hamilton says : " What 
was the precise nature or extent of this proposition, or what 
reasons for refusing it, is not ascertained by any authentic docu- 
ment, or even by accurate recollection. As far as any docu- 
ments exist, it specifies only canals." But whatever may have 
been the nature of the proposition, or the reasons for rejecting, 
it includes nothing in respect to the real merits of the question. 
The Secretary of State will not deny that, whatever may have 
been the intention of the framers of a constitution or a law, that 
intention is to be sought for in the instrument itself, according 
to the usual and established rules of construction. 

P. 123 : " It is presumed to have been satisfactorily shown, 



28 HAMILTON VINDICATED. 

in the course of the preceding observations : 1st. That the power 
of the Government as to the objects entrusted to its manage- 
ment, is, in its nature, sovereign. 2d. That the right of erecting 
corporations is one inherent in and indispensable from the idea 
of sovereign power. 3d. That the position, that the Govern- 
ment of the United States can exercise no power but such as is 
delegated to it by its Constitution, does not militate against this 
principle. 4th. That the word necessary in the general clause 
can have no restrictive operation derogatory from the force of 
this principle ; indeed, that the degree in -which a measure is or 
is not necessary, cannot be a test of constitutional right, but of 
expediency only. 5th. That the power to erect corporations is 
not to be considered as an independent or substantive power, but 
as an incident and auxiliary one, and was therefore more prop- 
ei;ly left to imiDlication than expressly granted. 6th. That the 
principle in question does not extend the power of the Govern- 
ment beyond the prescribed limits, because it only affirms a 
power to incorporate for purposes within the sphere of the 
specified powers. And, lastly, That the right to exercise such 
a power, in certain eases, is unequivocally granted in the most 
positive and comprehensive terms. To all which it only remains 
to be added, that such a power has been exercised in two very 
eminent instances ; namely, in the erection of two governments, 
one northwest of the river Ohio, and the other southwest ; the 
last independent of any antecedent compact. And these result 
in a full and complete demonstration that the Secretary of State 
and Attorney- General are mistaken, when they deny generally 
the power of the national Government to erect corporations." 

The Secretary of the Treasury then proceeds to show that 
there is a power to erect ©ne of the kind proposed by the bill. 

We forbear further quotations from this most important ex- 
amination of the powers of the Government, with the remark 
that it has great interest, from the fact that it manifests the 
efforts of the mental faculties of three of the distinguished. states- 
men of our country — Jefferson, Hamilton, and Randolph. We 
may add this anecdote, related to the writer by Judge Story : 

When the argument on this subject, in the case of McCul- 
lough vs. Maryland, 4 Wheaton, p. 413, was concluded, and the 
case had been decided that the Act was the exercise of a con- 
stitutional power. Chief Justice Marshall informed the court 
that he would wa*ite the opinion. When that was finished, he 



HAMILTON VINDICATED. 29 

asked Judge Story to read it. On returning the opinion to 
Marshall, Story said : " Erother Marshall, you have said nothing 
more than Hamilton wrote in his report to Washington." Mar- 
shall replied : " I have not ; Hamilton exhausted the subject." 

Washington, after a full and deliberate examination of the 
subject, having the arguments jpro and con of three members of 
liis Cabinet, approved the bill on Febrjaary 25th, 1791, two days 
after he received Hamilton's most conclusive argument. It is 
worthy of remark, that the discussion, and the decision by Presi- 
dent Washington, preceded the date of Jefferson's letter to Skep- 
with and Short, quoted above. 

When the term of the continuance of the first Bank was 
nearly ended, a bill was introduced to renew the charter ; which 
was defeated by the casting vote of Clinton, the Yice-President. 
Pending the discussion of that bill, according to Mr. Gallatin's 
statement, Mr. Jefferson expressed a wish, that, if the bill was 
passed, it might be effected by the oiDeration of the ten days' 
provision, and thus that his consistency should be preserved. 

In closing this branch of our subject, we quote from Presi- 
dent Madison's Message, January 30th, 1815 : " Waiving the 
question of the constitutional authority of the Legislature to 
establish an incorporated bank, as being precluded, in my judg- 
ment, by repeated recognitions, under varied circumstances, of 
the validity of such an institution in acts of the legislative, 
executive, and judicial branches of the Government, accom- 
panied by indications in different modes of a concurrence of the 
general will of the nation, the proposed bank does not appear 
to be calculated to answer the purpose of reviving the public 
credit by providing a national medium of circulation," &c., &c. 

That bill having been amended in conformity with the views 
of the President, it was approved by hiin on the lOtli April, 
1816. 

President Madison, in his eighth annual Message, December 
3d, 1816, certainly extends the powers of the Government in 
relation to the subject of currency far beyond any thing ever 
proposed or even contemplated by Hamilton. He says : " The 
Constitution has entrusted Cone/ress exclusively with the power of 
creating and regidating a currency of that description, of equal 
value, credit, and use wherever it may circidate / and the meas- 
ures taken during the last session m execution of the jpower, give 



30 HAMILTON VINDICATED. 

every 'promise of success. The Baiik of tJie United States has 
heen organized under ausjpices the most favorable^ and cannot 
fail to he an imjportant auxiliary to those measures.''^ 

This assumed power necessarily deprives the States of the 
]30wer to establish banks of issue, because the Constitution, as 
is alleged, has given to Congress the exclusive ^ower of creating 
and regulating currency. 

Mr. Yan Buren (p. 385), referring to the funding system, 
says : " It has long been discontinued." He adds : " As a na- 
tional bank has not become more completely an obsolete idea." 
Exactly when this was written, does not appear. Its author 
died in July, 1863. The existing funding system was estab- 
liblied by the Act of Congress passed on the 25th February, 
1862 : " An Act to Authorize the Issue of United States Notes, 
and for the Redemption or Funding thereof, and for Funding 
the Floating Debt of the United States." The 5th section of 
this Act provides that the " duties shall be paid in gold, which 
shall be set apart as a special fund, and applied, first, to the 
payment in coin of the interest on bonds and notes ; second, to 
the purchase or payment of one per centum of the entire, debt, 
which is to be set apart as a sinking fund," &c. 

The National Banks now existing were authorized by the 
Act passed June 3d, 1864. So much for Mr. Yan Buren's " ol- 
solete ideaP 

Mr. Yan Buren (p. 263) refers to the Sedition and Alien 
Laws with just reprobation. He, however, adds : " Yet it is 
well known that, of these last measures, the first (Sedition Law) 
was passed upon Hamilton's suggestion." This is a most gra- 
tuitous misrepresentation. On the contrary, it was and is well 
known that Hamilton disapproved of that Act. In proof of 
this, we refer to a letter he wrote to Wolcott, a member of the 
Cabinet, dated June 29th, 1798 : 

" Dear Sir : I have this moment seen a bill brought into the 
Senate, entitled ' A Bill to Define more Particularly the Crime 
of Treason.' There are provisions in this bill which, according 
to a cursory view, appear to me highly exceptionable, and such 
as, more than any thing else, may endanger civil war. I have 
not time to point out my objections by this post, but I will do 
it to-morrow. I hope sincerely the thing may not be hurried 
through. Let us not establish a tyranny. Energy is a very 



HAMILTON VINDICATED. 31 

different thing from violence. If we make no false step, wc 
will be essentially united ; but if we push things to an extreme, 
we shall then give to faction hody and solidiiy.'''' See Hamil- 
ton's Works, vol. vi., p. 307. 

"Wolcott, in reply, said : " The Sedition Law is merely a copy 
of a statute passed in October, 1774 ; " Gibbs. 

Yan Buren (p. 131), referring to the doctrine of implied 
powers, and Hamilton's avowed principles, says " that he (Ham- 
ilton) should be found mousing over the words of the Consti- 
tution for equivocal expressions." " To motise,^'' according to 
"Webster's Dictionary, means, " to watch for or pursue in a sly 
or insidious manner " — of which Hamilton was incapable. That 
Van Buren knew, when this charge was made, the meaning of 
the word, is most probable ; because Calhoun, long before his ( 
work was written, had, in the Senate, spoken of Yan Buren as 
a " mousing politician." 

I conclude this work, which I have undertaken in obedience 
to a sense of duty to my father, by endeavoring to show that 
the author of so malignant an attack upon a man who had ren- 
dered some service to his country, was induced by the inspiration 
of Mr. Jefferson during his visit to that gentleman. 

Yan Buren (p. 431) says : " The measures of which I have 
spoken, as the cherished policy of the old Federal party and its 
successors, taken as a whole, were justly described by Jefferson 
in liis much-abused letter to Mazzei, as a contrivance invented 
for the purpose of corruption, and for assimilating us in all re- 
spects to the rotten as well as the sound parts of the British 
Constitution." 

Upon examining Jefferson's letter to Washington, dated 23d 
May, 1792, published in the 12th Appendix to the tenth volume 
of Washington's Works, by Sparks, it will be found that he 
attributes to Hamilton all the objections, disloyal purposes, and 
corrupting influences which Yan Buren has imputed to Hamil- 
ton in this work. 

Washington, in a letter to Hamilton, written at Mount Yer- 
non, dated 29th July, 1792 (p. 249, vol. x.. Writings of Wash- 
ington), throws the letter by Jefferson in the form of objections 
from 1 to 21. (I^Tote by Sparks : " This summary is copied almost 
verbatim from a letter which the writer had recently received 
from Mr. Jefferson.") Washington says : " To obtain light and 



32 HAMILTON 'VIJSrDICATED. 

pursue truth being ray sole aim, and wishing to have before me 
explanations of, as well as the complaints on, measures in which 
the public interest and harmony are so deeply concerned and 
my public character so much involved, it is my request, and you 
would oblige me by furnishing me with your ideas upon the 
discontents here enumerated ; and for this purpose I have thrown 
them into heads or sections, and numbered them, that these ideas 
may be applied to the correspondent numbers." 

It is to be remarked, that Jefferson's letter M-as written when 
he and Hamilton were members of the Cabinet. 

Hamilton's answer to this letter will be found in vol. iv. of 
Hamilton's Works, pp. 247-279. 

Philadelphia, August 18t?i, 1793. 

" SiE : I am happy to be able at length to send you answers 
to the ob"jectious which were communicated to me in your letter 
of 29th July. They have been unavoidably drawn in haste — 
too much so to do perfect justice to the subject — and have been 
copied just as they flowed from my heart and pen, without re- 
vision or correction. You will observe that, here and there, 
some severity appears. I have not fortitude enough always to 
bear with calmness calumnies which necessarily include me as 
the principal agent in the measures concerned ; of the falsehood 
of which I have the most unqualified consciousness. 

" Ohjections and ansioej'S respecting the administration of the 
Government!''' 

Objection 1. " The public debt is greater than we can pos- 
sibly pay before other causes of adding to it will occur ; and 
this has been artificially created by adding together the lohcile 
amount of the debtor and creditor sides of the accounts." 

Answer. " The public debt was created by the late war. It 
is not the fault of the present Government that it exists, unless 
it can be proved that public morality and policy do not require 
of a government an honest provision for its debts. Whether it 
is greater than can be paid before new causes of adding to it 
will occur, is a problem incapable of being solved but by expe- 
rience ; and this would be the case if it were not one fourth as 
much as it is." 

" If the policy of the country be prudent, cautious, and 
neutral toward foreign nations, there is a rational probability 



HAMILTON VINDICATKD. 33 

that war may be avoided long enough to wipe off the debt. 
The Dutch, in a situation not near so favorable for it as that of 
the United States, have enjoyed intervals of peace longer than, 
with proper exertions, would suffice for the purpose. The debt 
of the United States, compared with its present and growing 
abilities, is really a very light one ; it is little more than tifteen 
million pounds sterling — -about the annual expenditure of Great 
Britain." 

As to its having been artificially increased, this is denied ; 
perhaps, indeed, the true reproach of the system which has been 
adopted, is, that it has artificially diminished the debt, as will 
be explained by and by. 

The assertion that the debt has been increased by adding 
together the whole amount of the debtor and creditor sides of 
the account, not being easy to be understood, is not easy to be 
ausM-ered ; but an answer will be attemi>ted. 

The thirteen States, in their joint capacity, owed a certain 
sum ; the same States, in their separate capacities, owed another 
sum ; these two sums constitute the aggregate of tlje public 
debt. The public, in a political sense, of the Government of the 
Union, and of the several States, was the debtor ; the individuals 
who held the various evidences of debt were the creditors. It 
would be nonsense to say that the combining of the two parts 
of the public debt is adding together the debtor and creditor 
sides of the account. So great an absurdity cannot be supposed 
to be intended by the objection. Another meaning must there- 
fore be sought for. It may possibly exist in the following mis- 
conception. 

Hamilton then goes on to suggest different misconceptions, 
and to refute them : " The debt may, then, rather be said to 
have been artificially decreased by the nature of the provision. 
The conclusion of the whole is, that, assuming it as a principle 
that the public debts of the different descriptions were honestly 
to be provided for and paid, it is the reverse of true that there 
has been an artificial increase of them. To argue on a different 
principle, is to presuppose dishonesty, and make it an objection 
to doing right." 

Objection 2. " This accumulation of debt has taken forever 
out of our power those easy resources of revenue which, applied 
to the ordinary necessities and exigencies of government, would 
3 



34 HAMILTON VINDICATED. 

have animated them habitually, and covered us from habitual 
murmiirino;s ao;ainst taxes and tax-gatherers. Reservinc: extra- 
ordinary calls for extraordinary occasions, would animate the 
people to meet them." 

Answer. " There having been no accumulation of debt, if 
what is here pretended to have been the consecpience were true, 
it would only be to be regretted as the unavoidable consequence 
of an unfortunate state of things. But the supposed conse- 
quence does by no means exist. The only sources of taxation 
which have been touched are imported articles, and the single 
internal object of distilled spirits ; lands, houses, the great mass 
of personal as well as the whole of real property, remains essen- 
tially free. In short, the chief sources of taxation are free for 
extraordinary conjunctures ; and it is one of the distinguishing 
merits of the system "which has been adopted, that it has ren- 
dered this far more the case than it was before. It is only to 
look into the difi'erent States, to be convinced of it. In most 
of them, real estate is wholly exempted. In some, very small 
burthens rest upon it for the purposes of the internal govern- 
ments. In all, the burthens of the people have been lightened. 
It is a mockery of truth to represent the United States as a com- 
munity burthened and exhausted by taxes." 

Ohjection 3. " That the calls for money have been no greater 
than we must generally expect for the same or equivalent exi- 
gencies ; yet we are already obliged to strain tlie impost till it 
produces clamor, and will produce evasion and war on our citi- 
zens to collect it, and even to resort to an excise law, of odious 
character with the people, partial in its operation, unproductive 
unless enforced by arbitrary and vexatious means, and commit- 
ting the authority of the Government in parts where resistance 
is most probable and coercion least practicable." 

Answer. " This is mere painting and exaggeration. With 
the exception of a very few articles, the duties on imports are 
still moderate — lower than in any other country of whose regu- 
lations we have knowledge, except, perhaps, Holland, where, 
having few productions or commodities of their own, their ex- 
port trade depends upon the exportation of foreign articles." 
* -X- * a ijijjQ general inducements to a provision for the pub- 
lic debt are : 

" 1st. To preserve the public faith and integrity, by fultilling, 



HAMILTON VINDICATED. 35 

as far as was practicable, the public engagements. 2d. To mani- 
fest a due respect for property, by satisfying the public obliga- 
tions in the hands of the public creditors / and which were as 
much their property as their houses or their lands, their liats or 
their coats. 3d. To revive and establish public credit, the palla- 
dium of public safety. 4th. To preserve the Government itself, 
by showing it worthy of the confidence placed in it." * * * 

'' The particular inducements to an assumption of State debts 
were : 

" 1st. To consolidate the finances of the country, and give an 
assurance of permanent order in them ; avoiding the collisions 
of thirteen different and independent systems of finance, under 
concurrent and coequal authority " (the States), " and the scram- 
bling for revenue which would be incident to so many different 
systems. 2d. To secure to the Government of the Union, by 
avoiding those entanglements, an effectual command of the re- 
sources of the Union for present and future exigencies. 3d. To 
equalize the condition of the citizens of the several States in the 
important article of taxation, rescuing a part of them from being 
oppressed with burthens beyond their strength, on account of 
extraordinary exertions in the war." * * * 

" A mind naturally attached to order and system, and capa- 
ble of appreciating their immense value, unless misled by par- 
ticular feelings, is struck at once with the prodigious advantages 
which, in the course of time, must attend such a simplification 
of the financial affairs of the country as results from placing all 
the parts of the public debt on one footing, under one direction, 
regulated by one provision. The want of this sound policy has 
been a continual source of disorder and embarrassment in the 
affairs of the United Netherlands." (We forbear to quote more 
in answer to this objection.) 

Objection -ith. " Propositions have been made in Congress, 
and projects are on foot still, to increase the mass of the debt." 

Answer. " Propositions have been made, and no doubt will 
be renewed by the States interested, to complete the assumption 
of the State debts. This would add, in the first instance, to the 
mass of the deht of the United States between three and four 
millions, but it would not increase the mass of the puhlic debt 
at all. It would only transfer from particular States to the 
Union debts which already exist." * * * 



hajSiilton vindicated. 



Objection 5th. " Tliey say that, by borrowing at two thu-ds 
of the interest, we might have paid off the principal in two 
thirds of the time ; but from this we are prechided, from its 
being made irredeemable but in small portions and long terms." 

Answer. " First, all the foreign loans made by the United 
States prior to the present Government cost more than six per 
cent. ; since the establishment of the present Government, they 
borrowed first at five and a quarter per cent., including charges, 
and since, at about four and a quarter per cent., including 
charges ; and it is questionable, in the present state of Europe, 
whether they can obtain any further loans at so low a rate. The 
system which is reprobated is tlie very cause that we have been 
able to borrow on so good terms." * * * " Secondly, we 
could not have borrowed at so low a rate of interest in the 
United States." '" * * " Lastly, the plan which has been 
adopted secures, in the first instance, the identical advantage 
which, in the other plan, would have been eventual and contin- 
gent. It puts one third of the whole debt at an interest of three 
per cent, only, and, by deferring the payment of interest on one 
third of the remainder, efl^ectually reduces the interest on that 
part. It is evident that a suspension of interest is, in fact, a 
reduction of interest." 

" In reality, on the principles of the funding system, the 
United States reduced the interest on their whole debt, upon an 
average, to about four and a half per cent." 

" The funding system, then, secured, in the very outset, the 
precise advantage which, it is alleged, would have accrued from 
having the whole debt redeemable at pleasure. But this is not 
all ; it did more. It left the Government still in a condition to 
enjoy, upon five ninths of the entire debt, the advantages of 
extinguishing it by loans at a low rate of interest, if they are 
obtainable. The three per cents., which are one third of the 
whole, may always be purchased in the market below par, until 
the market rate of interest falls to three per cent. The deferred 
will be purchasable below par till near the period of the actual 
payment of interest. If it be said that the like advantage might 
have been enjoyed under another system, the assertion would be 
without foundation." * * * 

" There is no reproach which has been thrown upon the fund- 
ino- system so unmerited as that which charges it with being a 



HAMILTON VINDICATED. 37 

oad bargain for the public, or with a tendency to prolong the 
extinguisliment of the debt. Tlie bargain has, if any thing, 
been too good on the side of the public ; and it is impossible for 
a debt to be in a more convenient form than it is for a rapid ex- 
tinguishment." * * * 

Upon the whole, then, it is the merit of the funding system 
to have conciliated these three important points — the restoration 
of public credit, a reduction of the rate of interest, and an 
organization of the debt convenient for speedy extinguishment. 

Ohjection 6th. " That this irredeemable quality was given 
to the debt for the avowed purpose of inviting its transfer to 
foreign countries." 

Answer. " This assertion is a palpable misrepresentation. 
The avowed purpose of that quality of the debt, as explained 
in the report of the Secretary of the Treasury, and in the argu- 
ments in Congress, was to give an equivalent for the reduction 
of interest." (See more of this.) 

Ohjection 7th. " They predict that this transfer of the prin- 
cipal, when completed, will occasion an exportation of three 
millions of dollars annually for the interest." * * * 

Answer. " The objection seems to forget that the debt is not 
transferred for nothing ; that the capital paid for the debt is 
always an equivalent for the interest to be paid to the purchaser. 
If that capital is well employed in a young country like this, it 
must be considerably increased, so as to yield a greater revenue 
than the interest of the money. The country, therefore, will be 
a gainer by it, and will be able to pay the interest without incon- 
venience." * * * 

Objection 8th. " That the banishment of our coin will be 
completed by the creation of ten millions of paper in the form 
of bank-bills, now issuing into circulation." 

Answer. " This is a mere hypothesis, in which theorists 
diflPer. There are no decisive facts on which to rest the ques- 
tion." (Hamilton quotes Smith's " Wealth of IS^ations," vol. i.. 
Book 2, chap. 2, pp. 441-444, to show " that banks more than 
compensate for the loss of the specie in other ways.") 

Ohjection 9th. " They think that the ten or twelve per cent, 
annual profit paid to the lenders of this paper medium are taken 
out of the pockets of the people, who would have had, without 
interest, the coin it was banishing." 



38 HAMILTON VINDICATED. 

Answer. " First, the profits of the banks have iiot hitherto 
exceeded eight per centum, and perhaps never may. Second, 
tiiese profits can in no just sense be said to be taken out of the 
pockets of the people." * * * " If a man receives a bank- 
bill for the ox or bushel of wheat he sells, he pays no more in- 
terest upon it than upon the same sum in gold or silver ; that 
is, he pays none at all," (Hamilton goes further on this point, 
and closes thus :) " All this is so plain and palpable, that the 
assertion which is made betrays extreme ignorance or extreme 
disingenuousness. It is destitute even of color." 

Objection 10th. " That all the capital employed in paper 
speculations is barren and useless, producing, like that on a 
gaming-table, no accession to itself, and is withdrawn Irom com- 
merce and agriculture, where it would have produced addition 
to the common mass." 

Answer. This is a copious subject, which has been fully dis- 
cussed in the report of the Secretary of the Treasury on the 
subject of manufactures. From page to page he con- 
tinues at large. 

Oljection 12 til. " The funding of the debt has furnished 
eflfectual means of corrupting such a portion of the Legislature as 
turns the balance between the honest voters, whichever way it 
is directed." 

Answer. " This is one of those assertions which can only be 
denied, and pronounced to be malignant and false. IsTo facts 
exist to support it ; no argument can be brought to repel it. 
The assertors beg the question. They assume to themselves, 
and to those who think with them, infallibility. Take their 
words for it, they are the only honest men in the community. 
But compare the tenor of men's lives, and at least as large a 
portion of virtuous and independent characters will be found 
among those whom they malign as among themselves. A mem 
ber of the majority of the Legislature would say to these de- 
famers : ' In your vocabulary, gentlemen, creditor and enemy 
appear to be synonymous terms; the support oi public credit, 
and corruption^ of similar import ; an enlarged and liberal con- 
struction ot the Constitution for the public good and for tlie 
maintenance of the due energy of the national authority, of the 
same meaning with usurpation and a conspiracy to overthrow 
the republican government of the country : every man of a dif 



HAMILTON VINDICATED. 39 

ferent opinion from your own, an ambitious despot or a corrupt 
knave. You bring every tiling to the standard of your narrow 
and depraved ideas, and you condemn without mercy, or even 
decency, whatever does not accord with it. But your preten- 
sions must be rejected, your insinuations despised. Your poli- 
tics originate in immorality — in a disregard of the maxims of 
good faith and the rights of property, and, if they could prevail, 
must end in national disgrace and confusion. Your rules of 
construction for the authorities vested in the Government of the 
Union would arrest all its essential movements, and brinp- it 
back in practice to the same state of imbecility which rendered 
the old confederation contemptible. Your principles of liberty 
are principles of licentiousness, incompatible with all govern- 
ment. You sacrifice every thing that is venerable and substan- 
tial in society to the vain reveries of a false and new-fangled 
philosophy. As to the motives by which I have been influenced, 
I leave my general conduct in private and public life to speak 
for them. Go and learn among my fellow-citizens whether I 
have not uniformly maintained the character of an honest man. 
As to love of liberty and country, you have given no stronger 
proof of being actuated by it than I have done. Cease, then, to 
arrogate to yourself, and to your party, all the patriotism and 
virtue of the country.^ 

" Such is the answer that would naturally be given by a 
member of the majority of the Legislature to such an objection. 
And it is the only one that could be given until some evidence 
of the supposed corruption should be produced." (See this 
further.) 

Objection 13th. " The corrupt squadron deciding the voice 
of the Legislature have manifested tiieir disposition to get rid 
of the limitations imposed by the Constitution on the general 
Legislature ; limitations on the faith of which the States acceded 
to that instrument." 

A7isiue7\ " Here again the objectors beg the question. They 
take it for granted that their constructions of the Constitution 
are right, and that the opposite ones are wrong ; and, with great 
good-nature and candor, ascribe the effect of a difference of 
opinion to a disposition to get rid of the limitations on the Gov- 
ernment. Those who have advocated the constructions which 
have obtained, have met their opponents on the ground of fair 



40 HAMILTON VINDICATED. 

argument, and, they think, have refuted them. How shall it be 
determined which side is right ? " 

(The following views of the Constitution are well worthy of 
attention. — J. A. II.) 

" There are some things which the General Government has 
clearly a right to do ; there are others which it has clearly no 
right to meddle with ; and there is a good deal of middle ground 
about which honest and well-disposed men may differ. The 
most that can be said, is, that some of this middle ground may 
have been occupied by the national Legislature ; and this surely 
is no evidence of a disposition to get rid of the limitations in the 
Constitution, nor can it be viewed in that light by men of can- 
dor." 

Oljection 14th. " The ultimate object of all this is, to pre- 
pare the way for a change from the present republican form of 
government to that of a monarchy, of which the British Consti- 
tution is to be the model." 

" To this there is no other answer than a flat denial, except 
this, that the project, from its absurdity, refutes itself. The idea 
of introducing a monarchy or aristocracy into this country, by 
employing the influence and force of a government continually 
changing hands, toward it, is one of those visionary things that 
none but madmen could meditate, and that no wise man will 
believe." (Did Yan Buren believe this charge against Hamil- 
ton, so often repeated by him, was true ? If he did not, com- 
mon justice should have prompted him to refer his reader to this 
denial.) " If it could be done at all — which is utterly incredi- 
ble — it would require a long series of time, certainly bfeyond. the 
life of any individual, to eflect it. Who, then, would enter into 
such a plot ? — for what purpose of interest or ambition ? To 
hope that the people may be cajoled into giving their sanctions 
to such institutions, is still more chimerical. A people so en- 
lightened and so diversified as the people of this country, can 
surely never be brought to it but from convulsions and disorders 
in consequence of the arts of popular demagogues." 

" The truth unquestionably is, that the only path to a sub- 
version of the republican system of the country is by flattering 
the prejudices of the people, and exciting their jealousies and 
apprehensions, to throw aflfairs into confusion, and bring on civil 
commotion. Tired, at length, of anarchy or want of govern- 



HAMILTON VINDICATED. 41 

meiit, tliey may take shelter in the arms of monarchy for repose 
and security. Those, then, who resist a confirmation of public 
order, are the true artificers of monarchy." 

Objection 15th. '' The charge that this was contemplated in 
the Convention, they say, is no secret, because its partisans have 
made none of it ; to eflfect it then was impracticable ; but they 
are still eager after their object, and are predisposing every thing 
for its ultimate attainment." 

Answer. " This is a palpable misrepresentation. No man 
that I know of contemplated the introducing into this country a 
monarchy. A very small number (not more than thi'ee or four) 
manifested theoretical opinions favorable in the abstract to a 
Constitution like that of Great Britain ; but every one agreed 
that such a Constitution, except as to the general distribution of 
departments and powers, was out of the question in reference to 
this country. The member who was most explicit on this point 
(a member from New York), declared, in strong terms, that the 
republican theory ought to be adhered to in this country as long 
as there was any chance of its success ; that the idea of a perfect 
equality of political rights among the citizens, exclusive of all 
permanent or hereditary distinctions, was of a nature to engage 
the good wishes of every good man, whatever might be his theo- 
retic doubts ; that it merited his best efibrts to give success to it 
in practice." (This was Hamilton.) "The basis, therefore, of 
this suggestion fails." 

Objection 16th. " So many of them have got into the Legis- 
lature, that, aided by the corrupt squadron of paper-dealers who 
are at their devotion, they make a majority in both Houses." 

This has been answered above. Neither description of char- 
acter is to be found in the Legislature. 

In reply to this charge, so far as Hamilton is concerned, the 
writer may here introduce the following facts. General Henry 
Lee, once Governor of Virginia, and so famous in the Revolu- 
tion as Light-Horse Lee, addressed a letter to Hamilton, dated 
Richmond, November 16th, 1789 (a copy of which is now before 
me). We quote : 

" From your situation, you must be able to form, with some 
certainty, an opinion concerning the domestic debt. Will it 
speedily rise ? Will the interest accruing command specie, or 
any thing nearly as valuable ? " &c., &c. 



42 HAMILTON VINDICATED. 

" These queries, perhaps, may be improper. I do not think 
them so, or I would not propound them. Of this you will de- 
cide, and act accordingly." 

Hamilton replied, New York, December 1st, 1789 : 
" To II. Lee, Esq. : 

" I have received your letter of the 16th ultimo. I am sure 
you are sincere, when you say you would not subject me to an 
impropriety — nor do I know that there would be any — in an- 
swering your queries ; but you remember the saying with regard 
to Csesar's wife, I think the spirit of it applicable to every man 
concerned in the administration of the finances of the country. 
With respect to the conduct of such men, suspicion is ever eagle- 
eyed, and the most innocent things are apt to be misinterpreted. 

" Yours, A. Hamilton." 

The writer knows of two other applications of a like char- 
acter, which were rejected by his father. Sec Reminiscences, 
James A. Hamilton, p. 18, for other refusals to give information. 
The 17th, 18th, and 19th heads are treated together. Thus : 
" They are rather inferences from, or comments upon, what is 
before suggested, than specific objections. The answer to them 
must therefore be derived from what is said under other heads." 

Objection 20th. The owers of the debt are in the southern, 
and the holders of it in the northern, division. 

Answer. If this were literally true, it would be no argument 
for or against any thing ; it would be still morally and politically 
right for the debtors to pay their creditors. But it is in no 
sense true. The owers of the debt are the people of every State, 
South, Middle, and l^orth ; the holders are the individual credi- 
tors, citizens of the United States, Ketherlands, Great Britain, 
&c., (fcc. He then proceeds to show how and where the debt 
arose. 

Treating of the speculation in State debts, Hamilton says : 
" It happened that Mr. Madison, and some other distinguished 
characters of the South, started in opposition to the assumption. 
The high opinion entertained of them made it be taken for 
granted, in that quarter, that the opposition would be success- 
ful. The securities quickly rose by means of purchases beyond 
their former prices. It was imagined that they would soon re- 
turn to their old station by a rejection of the proposition for 
assiiniing ; and the certificate holders were eager to Y'-^^'^ with 



HAMILTON VINDICATED. 43 

thein at their current prices, calculating on a loss to tlie pur- 
chasers from their fall. This representation is not conjectural ; 
it is founded on information from respectable and intelligent 
Southern characters, and may be ascertained by inquiry. 

" Hence it happened that the inhabitants of the Southern 
States sustained a considerable loss by the opposition to the as- 
sumption from Southern gentlemen, and their too great confi- 
dence in the efficacy of that opposition." 

Objection 21st. This is a speculation on the course of parties. 
In the answer to this, Hamilton closes thus : " The anti-Federal 
champions alluded to may be taught to abate their exultation, 
by being told that the great body of the Federalists, or rather 
the great body of the people, are of opinion that none of their 
predictions have been fulfilled ; that the beneficial efiects of the 
Government have exceeded expectation, and are witnessed by 
the general prosperity of the nation." 

Mr. Jefferson has without reserve, and without giving facts 
or names, publicly declared that Hamilton had bribed members 
of Congress, and thus established a mercenary majority, ready 
to sustain all his measures. On the dth January, 1792, he ad- 
dressed the following letter to Mr. Madison, then a member of 
the House of Kepresentatives, Jefferson's Writings, vol. iii., p. 
439 : " I have not yet had the conversation mentioned in my 
last " (with Washington, in regard to the alleged corruption). 
" Do you remember you were to leave me a list of names ? " 
(probably of names of members who he had said had been 
bribed.) " Pray, send them to me. My only view is, tliat, if 
the P." (President) " asks ine for a list of particulars, I may 
enumerate names to him without naming my authority, and 
show him that I had been speaking merely at random. If we 
do not have a conversation before I can make a comparative 
table of debts and numbers of all modern nations, I will show 
him how highly we stand indebted by the poll in that table." 

Jefferson had represented to Washington, before that letter 
was written, that the members of Congress had been corrupted ; 
and, failing to secure the evidence from Madison, he endeavors, 
by false and artificial means, to show that the United States 
had been charged with an amount of debt that would be dan- 
gerous. 

This is a most disgraceful transaction, and is a conclusive 
answer to the charge of cori-nption. 



4:4: HAMILTON VINDICATED. 

It is possible, but liigbly improbable, that Mr. Yan Buren 
was ignorant of these Acts of Congress and the Messages of his 
predecessors. If he was informed on the subject, he has most 
assuredly wantonly (I might say more) concealed from the pub- 
lic facts, which go to prove his charges against Hamilton, of 
violating the Constitution as to the jpi'otective system^ as to the 
assumption of State dehts^ and the funding system, are gross 
violations of the truth. Mr. Van Buren again and again inti- 
mates, if he does not directly assert, that Hamilton's imputed 
violations of the Constitution were prompted by a disposition — 
nay, a design — to change this Government, and give it a mo- 
narchical form. 

I have before stated Hamilton's views on this subject, in his 
answer to the 15th objection, and I now add conclusive evidence 
that this was a base calumny. 

Hamilton, August 1st, ISOO, addressed the following letter 
to John Adams, President of the United States : 

" Sir : It has been repeatedly mentioned to me that you 
have, on different occasions, asserted the existence of a British 
faction in this country, embracing a number of leading or influ- 
ential characters of the Federal party (as usually denominated), 
and that you have sometimes named me, at others plainly al- 
luded to me, as one of this description of persons. And I have 
likewise been assured that, of late, some of your warm ad- 
herents, for electioneering purposes, have employed a corre- 
sponding language. 

" I must, sir, take it for granted that you cannot have made 
such assertions or insinuations without being willing to avow 
them, and to assign the reasons to a ]3arty who may conceive 
himself injured by them. I therefore trust that you will not 
deem it improper that I apply directly to yourself to ascertain 
from you, in reference to j^our own declarations, whether the 
information I have received has been correct or not ; and, if 
correct, what are the grounds on which you have founded the 
suggestions. 

" With respect, I have the honor to be, sir, your obedient 
servant." 

Hamilton, after waiting two months for an answer to this 
civil letter, addressed the following letter to John Adams, Pi-esi- 
dent of the United States : 



HAMILTON VINDICATED. 45 

New York, October 1st, 1800. 

" Sir : The -time which has elapsed since my letter of the 1st 
of August was delivered to you, precludes further expectation 
of an answer. From this silence I will draw no inference, nor 
will I presume to judge of the fitness of silence on such an occa- 
sion on the part of the chief magistrate of a republic toward a 
citizen who, without a stain, has discharged so many important 
public trusts. But thus much I will affirm, that, by whomsoever 
a charge of the kind mentioned in my former letter may at any 
time have been made or insinuated against me, it is a base, 
wicked, and cruel calumny, destitute of even a plausible pretext 
to excuse the folly or mask the depravity which must have dic- 
tated it. 

" With due respect, I have the honor to be, sir, your obedient 
servant. 

" (Signed) Alexander Hamilton." 

See works of Hamilton, vol. vii., p. 726. 

Mr. Van Buren refers to liartiilton^s Works. It is possible, 
but not at all probable, that he did not read these letters. If 
he did, common fairness would have induced him to refer to 
them. It is difficult to believe that the man who could express 
the following sublime truth (as Hamilton did), could have enter- 
tained the purpose imputed to him by Van Buren : 

" The fabric of American enipire ought to rest on the solid 
basis of the consent of the peojple. The streams of national 
power ought to flow immediately from that pure original foun- 
tain of all legitimate authority." 

The early political parties in our country during the War of 
the Revolution were designated as Whigs and Tories ; the for- 
mer being those who sustained the independence of the colonies, 
the latter sustaining the royal authority. The men of fortune, 
and the business men of the city of New York, the same class 
of persons in the southwest part of Long Island and the south- 
ern part of Westchester county, were, with few exceptions, 
Tories. The animosity of the Whigs against the Tories in New 
York was so violent and demonstrative, that, when the city was 
evacuated by the British troops, a small force was left behind to 
keep the peace ; and Washington, being informed of this state 
of things when he advanced upon the city, sent down a small 
force to relieve the British soldiers, and to preserve the peace. 



40 HAMILTON VINDICATED, 

So intense was the hatred of the returned Whigs against the 
Tories, that they attempted to expel them ; and suits were prose- 
cuted to confiscate their property, in violation of the provisions 
of the Treaty of Peace. Under these circumstances, from a sense 
of duty, Hamilton, in 1Y89, wrote and published two long let- 
ters, under the signature of Phocion, which mitigated this vio- 
lence of feeling and action. 

The next party division of the people of the country was 
that known as Federalists and anti-Federalists, the former being 
those who were in favor of adopting the Constitution of govern- 
ment formed by the Convention which was held in Philadelphia 
from May 25th to September 28th, 1787, of which George Wash- 
ington was President. The Constitution prepared by the Con- 
vention was submitted by the Congress held under the Articles 
of Confederation to conventions to be held in the several States, 
the members thereof to be elected by the people. When the 
N^ew York Convention was assembled at Poughkeepsie, it was 
found that two thirds of the members were opposed to adoption. 
They were under the lead of George Clinton, who was elected 
President of the Convention. The leading men in favor of 
adoption were Chancellor Livingston, Philip Schuyler, John 
Jay, Alexander Hamilton ; and, after a very protracted session, 
a majority was in favor of adoption. 

The leading publications in favor of the Constitution were 
denominated the Federalists. 

The leading men of the country, Washington at their head, 
were earnestly in favor of the adoption. Jefierson was opposed 
to adoption, unless the proposed Constitution was amended. 

Mr. Madison, in the 10th number of the Federalist, says : 
<' And according to the degree of pleasure and pride we feel in 
being republicans, ought to be our zeal in cherishing the spirit 
and supporting the character of Federalists." 

The Constitution having been adopted, and the Government 
under it organized in 1789, the illustrious Washington was 
elected President, and John Adams, Yice-President. Washing- 
ton's Cabinet was : Jefferson, of Virginia, Secretary of State ; 
Hamilton, of New York, Secretary of the Treasury ; General 
Knox, of Massachusetts, Secretary of War ; and Edmund Ran- 
dolph, of Virginia, Attorney-General. 

The question which occasioned that division of parties having 



HAMILTON VINDICATED. 47 

thas been settled, the parties could no longer exist on their origi- 
nal differences of opinion. 

The next parties which arose were essentially personal ; that 
is to say, tliey were induced by the aspirations of certain indi- 
viduals. 

Mr. Yan Buren, referring to these parties, says : " Mr. Madi- 
son was not as genuine a Democrat as Mr. Jefferson w^as." See 
p. . 

Mr. Madison, who wrote No. 10 of the Federalist, shows 
■conclusively that the Government formed by the Constitution 
was not a democracy, and he points out the distinction between 
that and a republic. The former he condemned, the latter he 
approved ; he could not, therefore, be a Democrat, without re- 
pudiating what he had written as above quoted, and being dis- 
loyal to his Government, 

Blackwood, January, 1825, says : " The Federalists which 
may be called seriously, reverently, the Bible of republicanism. 
It is a work altogether which, for comprehensiveness of design, 
strength, clearness, and simplicity, has no parallel. We do not 
even except or overlook those of Montesquieu and Aristotle 
among the writings of men." 

The first Judge Chase, after mentioning Blackstone and 
Woodlson, speaks of the authors of the Federalist as being, in 
his opinion, superior to both for extensive and accurate know- 
ledge of the true principles of government (3 Dallas Repts., 391). 

Doctor Ramsey, in his history of the American Revolution, 
says of the letters of Publicus, that they will long remain a 
monument of the strength and acuteness of the haman under- 
standing in investigating truth (vol. ii., p. 405). 

The Edinhurghj Review, IS'o. 24 : " The Federalist is a pub- 
lication that exhibits an extent of information, a profundity of 
research, and acuteness of understanding which would have done 
honor to the most illustrious statesman of ancient or modern 
times." 

Guizot, the ablest statesman of France in modern times, 
speaking of the Federalist, said : '• For all that combines a pro- 
found knowledge of the great elementary jDrinciples of human 
government with the wisest maxims of practical administration, 
I do not know, in the whole compass of my reading, whether 
from ancient or modern authors, so able a work." 



48 HAMILTON VINDICATED. 

We have presented these approvals of that distinguished 
work, that our fellow-citizens of the present generation may, 
with a just pride, appreciate the merits of their distinguished 
authors. Tlie first number was written by Hamilton, in the 
cabin of an Albany sloop, on his way to Albany ; it was issued 
27th October, 1787. No. 6 was written by him at Albany, dur- 
ing the sitting of the Supreme Court. He was then in his thir- 
tieth year. John Jay wrote Nos. 2, 3, 4, 6, and 64 (5). James 
Madison wrote JSTos. 10, 14, 37 to 48 inclusive (14). Hamilton 
and Madison, 18, 19, and 20 (3) ; and Hamilton wrote all the 
rest (63). Total 85. The first thirty-six numbers were collected 
in a small duodecimo volume, and published in March, 1788. 
A second volume appeared at the close of the same year. Some 
of the numbers were] written by Hamilton, when the printer's 
boy was waiting for them. 

Mr. Jefi"erson resigned the office of Secretary of State on the 
31st December, 1793. Edmund Randolph was called to his 
place, and Bradford was appointed Attorney-General. 

Randolph was driven from the Cabinet in disgrace on the 
19th August, 1795. (Hildreth's " History of the United States," 
2d series, vol. i., p. 556.) Fanchett's (French Minister) private 
despatch No. 10 had been intercepted on its way to France by 
a British cruiser, and, through Lord Grenville, had been trans- 
mitted to Hammond, the British Minister at Philadelphia. As- 
serting the delay in the ratification of the treaty (Jay's treaty) 
to Randolph's influence, Hammond communicated this despatch 
to Wolcott, the Secretary of the Treasury, as going to show that 
intrigues by the Secretary of State (Randolph) had been carried 
on with the French Minister. Wolcott and Pinckney requested 
Washington to return with all speed to Philadelphia. On the 
19th August, at a Cabinet meeting, Washington presented to 
Randolph, in the presence of the other Cabinet officers, the 
original intercepted despatch. He endeavored to make explana- 
tions, which he perceived were not satisfactory, and resigned. 

Upon examining Randolph's accounts as Secretary of State, 
it was found that he was a defaulter to over $50,000 ; and no 
doubt this infamous suggestion to the French Minister was in- 
duced by the hope of covering up this deficiency. 

Mr. Gallatin, as Secretary of the Treasury, in his official re- 
port, refers to a suit against Randolph then pending for the^ 
above amount. 



HAMILTON VINDICATED. 49 

After the Constitution was adopted, and the Government, 
under the administration of "Washington, in successful operation, 
although the designation of the parties continued for some time 
to be Federal and anti-Federal, the party divisions were essen- 
tiallj" persona], resulting from the ambitious aspirations of Jef- 
ferson. 

John Randolph, at a later period, declared that, before the 
election of Washington's successor, it was agreed and well under- 
stood among them that Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe should 
be elected Presidents in succession ; and such was the result of 
Jefferson's partj management, and to that end, as we shall show, 
he endeavored to destroy the popularity of every man who might 
be a competitor for the office, or whose influence might be given 
to the support of such competitors. He well knew that Wash- 
ington approved the financial measures of Hamilton, which were 
carried through Congress by the Federal party ; he therefore 
endeavored to impair Washington's influence, as we will prove. 
This was the beginning of the new party organizations. 

Mr. Jefferson, when Secretary of State, employed Freneaii, 
a printer from Kew York, as translating clerk in his department, 
who directly established a newspaper. That newspaper was the 
oracle of that party which sustained Mr. Jefferson and abused 
all the measures approved by Washington. In confirmation of 
this, we refer to Jefferson's Ana, vol. iv. (Jefferson's Writings), 
p. 485, May 23d, 1T93 : " He (the President) adverted to a piece 
in F]-eneau's paper of yesterday. He said he despised all their 
attacks on him personally, but there never had been an act of 
the Government, not meaning in the Executive line only, but in 
any line, which that paper had not abused." * -5^ * " He 
was evidently sore and warm, and I took his intention to be 
that 1 should interpose in some way with Freneau — perhaps 
withdraw his appointment of translating clerk to my office ; but 
I will not do it." 

Again, vol. iv., p. 491, August 2d, 1793 : " Knox, in a foolish, 
incoherent speech, introduced the pasquinade lately printed, 

called the ' funeral of George W n,' when the President was 

placed on a guillotine. The President was much inflamed ; got 
into one of those passions where he cannot command himself; 
ran on much on the personal abuse which had been bestowed 
upon him ; defied any man on earth to produce one single act of 
4 



50 HAMILTON VmDICATED. 

his. since lie liad been in tlie Government, wliicli was not done 
on the purest motives ; that he had never repented but once the 
having slipped the moment of resigning his office, and that was 
every moment since ; that, hy God, he had rather be in his grave, 
than in his present situation ; that he would rather be on his 
farm, than emperor of the world ; and yet, that they were charg- 
ing him with wanting to be a king ; that that rascal Fi^eneau 
sent Mm three of his papers every day, as if he thought he 
would become the distributor of his papers ; that he could see 
in this but an impudent design to insult him. He ended in this 
high tone." 

Smucker's " Life and Times of Thomas Jefferson," p. 213, 
referring to Freneau's newspaper, says : " The National Gazette 
had been established by Mr. Jefferson, and its leading articles 
continually and bitterly attacked "Washington and Hamilton, 
and their measures. In many of these articles the style of Jef- 
ferson was clearly detected, and the abuse of the President was 
most execrable." 

After Jefferson's return to Monticello, in 1793, it is certain 
that his residence became for several years the headquarters of 
those who were opposed to the administration of Washington. 
Smucker, p. 219. 

Mr. Pickering, says Callender, in 1800, wrote a work called 
" The Prosioect Before JJs^^ in which he writes of "Washington, 
thus : " By his own account, therefore, Mr. "Washington has heen 
■twice a traitor.'''' (The italics are ours.) "He first renounced 
the king of England, then, after, the old confederation." " The 
extravagant popularity possessed by this citizen reflects the 
utmost ridicule on the discernment of the Americans." " He 
approved of the funding system, the assumption, the national 
banks, and, in contradiction to his own solemn promise, he 
authorized the robbery and ruin of the remnant of his. own 
army." This work was written and printed under the contriv- 
ance, patronage, and pay of Mr. Jefferson, who wrote the two 
following letters to Callender, which came into Pinckney's pos- 
session ; who says "both were in Jefferson's handwi'iting — to 
me perfectly well known." 

Extract of a letter from Thomas Jefferson to Mr. Callender, 
dated Monticello, September, 1799 : 

"Mr. Jefferson happens to be here, and directs his agent to 



HAMILTON VINDICATED. 51 

call on you with this, and ])ay you $50, on acount of the book 
you are about to publish. When it shall be out, be so good as 
to send nie two or three copies, and the rest only when I shall 
ask for them. With every wish for your welfare, I am, with 
great regard, your most obedient servant. 

" Mr. Callender. Thomas Jefferson." 

The other letter is dated Monticello, October 6th, 1799. The 
first lines acknowledge the receipt of a letter from Callender of 
September 29th, 1799, and concludes with these words : 

" 1 thank you for the proof-sheets you enclose me. Such 
papers cannot fail to produce the best effect. They inform the 
thinking part of the nation, and these again, supported by the 
tax-gatherers as their vouchers, set the people to rights. You 
will know from whom this comes without a signature, the omis- 
sion of which has been rendered almost habitual with me by the 
curiosity of the post-officers. Indeed, a period is now approach- 
ing during which I shall discontinue writing letters as much as 
possible, knowing that every snare will be used to get hold of 
what may be perverted in the eyes of the public. Adieu. 

'• Mr. James Thompson Callender, Richmond." 

Callender was convicted of a libel by a jury at Richmond, 
Va., fined and imprisoned, and pardoned by President Jefferson. 

The above are extracts from a pamphlet written by Picker- 
ing. My impression is, that Jefferson admitted that he ad- 
dressed these letters to Callender, but asserted that the money 
was given by him as a charity. 

Hildreth's " History of the United States," vol. iii. : " There 
was, indeed, some disposition to throw the blame of the late 
disasters in Virginia (during the Revolution) on Mr. Jefierson, 
and a motion was made in the Assembly for his impeachment. 
He was charged with cowardice. When he was seeking popu- 
larity, he well knew that the officers of the late army, members 
of the Society of the Cincinnati, would be opposed to him." 

In 1786, Jefferson wrote an article for M. de Menonier (Jef- 
ferson's Works, vol. i., p. 416), in which he speaks of this So- 
ciety in strong terms of approbation. " This institution would 
be an instrument the more for strengthening the federal bond 
and for promoting federal ideas. It was founded exclusively on 
sentiments of benevolence and friendship, was innocent in its 
origin, and no less innocent in its effects." This, he says, is the 



52 HAMILTOiSr VINDICATED, 

true history of the Society. Afterward, when he was seeking 
popularity, well knowing that tlie members of this Society — 
military men — would not give their votes and influence to a man 
whose courage had been so seriously impeached, he endeavored 
to induce Washington to suppress it, and to Mr, Madison he de- 
scribed the Society as a body " cowering over the Constitution 
eternally," and " carving out for itself hereditary distinctions." 

H, Lee, in his " Observations on the Writings of Thomas 
Jefferson," p. 34, says : " Whereas the article fabricated for Mr, 
Madison was a thread in that web of misrepresentations which 
he was weaving round the character of General Washington — a 
web of torments — these torments were cruelly inflicted for the 
purpose of bringing his own claims before the people with a 
better chance of success." 

As to Jefferson's character, John Adams, in a letter to Cun- 
ningham, referring to Mr. Jefferson, says : " I wish him no ill." 
" I envy him not," '• / slmdder at the calamities which, I fear, 
his conduct is prcj^aring for his country, from a mean thirst of 
popularity and inordinate ambition and want of sincerity," 

Jefferson, in a letter to Mann (Jefferson's Writings, vol. v., 
p, 315), says : " Our part of the country is in considerable fer- 
mentation on what they suspect to be a recent roguery of this 
kind : they say, while all hands were below deck mending sails, 
a rogue of a pilot has run them into an enemy's port. But, 
metaphor apart, there is much dissatisfaction with Jay's treaty," 

And to Madison (p, 316) he writes : " Thus it is that Hamil- 
ton, Jay, &c., in the boldest act they ever ventured to under- 
mine the Government, have the address to screen themselves, 
and to direct the hue and cry against those who wished to drag 
them into light." 

To Madison (p 32-4) he writes : "The whole mass of your 
constituents have condemned this work (Jay's treaty) in the most 
unequivocal terms, and are looking to you as their last hope, to 
save them from the effects of the avarice and corruption of the 
first against Jay, the revolutionary machinations of others (Ham- 
ilton and his friends), and the incomprehensible acquiescence of 
the only honest man (General Washington), wdio has assented to 
it. I wish that his honesty and his political errors may not fur- 
nish a second occasion to exclaim, " Curse on his virtues ; they 
have undone his country ! " This was Jefferson's course, in 1796. 



HA^nLTON VINDICATED. 53 

Washington, in a letter to Ilamilton, dated 16tli May, 1796, 
in relation to the farewell address, says : " It will be perceived 
from hence that I am attached to the quotation. My reasons 
for it are, that it is not only a fact that such an address was 
written, and on the point of being published, but known also to 
one or two of those characters who are now strongest and fore- 
most in the opposition to the Government, and consequently to 
the person administering it contrary to their views." (Hamil- 
ton's Writings, vol. vi., p. 120.) 

Madison wrote that quoted part, and Jefferson was made 
acquainted with that fact. These were " two of those charac- 
ters.'''' 

Jefferson, in his Ana (Jefferson's Writings, vol. iv., p. 446), 
says : " I returned from that mission in December, 1Y89, and 
proceeded to IS'ew York, March 4th, 1790." * * * " Ham- 
ilton's financial system had then passed. It had two objects : 
1st, as a puzzle, to exclude popular understanding and inquiry ; 
2d, as a machine for the corruption of the Legislature. And 
with grief and shame it must be acknowledged that his machine 
was not without effect ; and even in this the birth of our Gov- 
ernment, some members were found sordid enough to bend their 
duty to their interests, and ' to look after personal rather than 
public good." Page 447, he adds : " Men thus enriched by the 
dexterity of a leader, would follow, of course, the chief who 
was leading them to fortune, and become the zealous instru- 
ments of all his enterprises. This game was over, and another 
one on the carpet at the moment of my arrival." To all this it 
can only be answered, that no fact or circumstance is stated to 
sustain such a charge. On the contrary, it is proved that, when 
General Lee, and others, applied to Hamilton for information as 
to his financial schemes, it was promptly and persistently re- 
fused. 

The correspondence with Henry Lee, before given, is a con- 
clusive answer to Jefferson's charge, that Ilamilton had cor- 
rupted members of Congress, and others, by communicating to 
them his proposed financial measures ; of which charges Jeffer- 
son does not give, or attempt to give, any proof whatever. 

I conclude this work, undertaken in obedience to a sense of 
duty t© my father, by endeavoring to show that the author of 
so malignant an attack upon a man who had rendered signal 



54 HAMILTON VINDICATED. 

service to his country, was prompted by the inspirations of Mr. 
Jefferson. 

Mr. Van Biiren, p. 421 : " Tlie measures of whieli I have 
spoken as the cherished policy of the old Federal party and its 
successors, taken as a whole, were justly described by Jefferson, 
in his much-abused letter to Mazzei, as a contrivance invented 
for the purpose of corruption, and for assimilating us in all re- 
spects to the rotten as well as the sound parts of the British 
Constitution." During Mr. Van Buren's visit to Mr, Jefferson 
in 1824, it is highly probable that the latter impressed upon the 
former the opinions and purposes attributed to Hamilton, 

James A, Hamilton. 

January, 1870. 



L£ N '10 



